🕒 Six Years, 'Lost' Papers, and Court Drama: The Struggles of Public Health Advocacy in India 🇮🇳
- MediaFx
- Jan 30
- 2 min read
TL;DR: Public health advocacy in India faces major hurdles, including endless legal battles, missing documents, and a lack of accountability from authorities. A recent case highlights these challenges, showing how difficult it is to ensure safe medicines for everyone.
Public health advocacy in India is like a never-ending uphill climb. Advocates often find themselves stuck in long legal battles, hunting for 'lost' documents, and dealing with a system that seems to ignore their efforts. A recent article on Scroll.in sheds light on these struggles, focusing on a petition filed in 2018 that questioned the approval of three drugs by the Drug Controller General of India. Despite being on the market, these drugs lacked proper therapeutic justification. After six years and 24 court hearings with no significant progress, the petitioner withdrew the case due to sheer exhaustion.
This situation isn't unique. Public health advocates often feel their work is thankless. Neither the drug regulator, the health ministry, nor the courts seem to take their concerns seriously. Even tragic incidents, like the deaths of young children due to poorly manufactured drugs, fail to prompt accountability.
The core issue lies in the approval process of new drugs. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health's 59th report, presented in 2012, criticized the Central Drug Standards Control Organisation for approving new drugs without sufficient clinical evidence of their effectiveness. Shockingly, the committee found that approval files for certain drugs were missing, raising concerns about transparency and accountability.
This lack of transparency isn't just a bureaucratic hiccup; it has real-world consequences. When drugs without proven efficacy are approved and sold, patients are put at risk. The absence of accountability means that those responsible for these approvals face no repercussions, allowing the cycle to continue.
For public health advocates, this environment is disheartening. The combination of prolonged legal procedures, missing documents, and indifferent authorities makes it challenging to protect public health effectively. The recent withdrawal of the 2018 petition underscores the systemic issues that need urgent attention to ensure the safety and well-being of the public.
