By Oommen C. Kurian
Jan Aushadhi scheme has grown past the initial hiccups to spread across every state & district of India, brining much-needed relief to common man
Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP), popularly known as ‘Jan Aushadhi,’ is a scheme that has seen rapid progress under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government over the past decade. Every year, March 7 is celebrated as “Jan Aushadhi Diwas,” to enhance public awareness and confidence about generic medicines.
The Jan Aushadhi Scheme — or people’s medicine scheme — was launched in November 2008, responding to the high out-of-pocket medical expenditure of average citizen. This scheme is one of the very few key health initiatives outside the purview of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Under the scheme, dedicated outlets known as ‘Jan Aushadhi Kendras’ (medicine shops) were opened to provide quality generic medicines at affordable prices. The scheme initially got off to a slow start. In the first six years of operations, until 2015, only 80 Jan Aushadhi Kendras had been established in select states. The pace of expansion accelerated tremendously in later years.
Between 2016 and 2025, around 14,000 new Jan Aushadhi Kendras have been established across every state and Union territory in India. PMBJP has been routinely achieving coverage targets ahead of time. In December 2023, Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the 10,000th Jan Aushadhi Kendra at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Deoghar. The scheme had outpaced the Government deadline, achieving the goal of opening 10,000 Kendras well before the March 2024 target. The next target of opening 15,000 Jan Aushadhi Kendras by March 2025 was also achieved, beating the deadline by two months.
Figure 1: PMBJP Kendras across India
* Data till March 2025.
Source: Compiled by the author from GoI’s PMBJP portal and Parliament website.
Growth of the network
High out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) on health pushes 3 per cent to 7 per cent households below the poverty line every year, with studies showing rural and poorer states facing a higher impact. Disadvantaged groups bear a greater financial burden from OOPE on health, which led to the scheme becoming a policy priority for the Government.
The Government assessed that despite India being one of the leading exporters of generic medicines to the world, a major chunk of its citizens lacked sufficient access to affordable medication. Ironically, in the Indian market, branded generic medicines are sold at significantly higher prices than their un-branded generic equivalents despite being identical in therapeutic value. This necessitated Government intervention to provide quality generic medicines to the public.
By the end of January 2025, 15,057 Kendras have been set up with the annual targets for every year being exceeded – a remarkable feat for a Government initiative. Every district in India today has a Jan Aushadhi Kendra. PMBJP has seen steady growth over the years. Starting from 1,080 Kendras in 2016–17, the initiative gained momentum with 2,226 new Kendras in 2017–18, bringing the total to 3,306.
The growth continued in subsequent years, with the number of Kendras surpassing 5,000 in 2018–19 and reaching 7,557 by 2020–21. While the expansion rate slowed between 2021–22 and 2022–23 during the pandemic, there was a renewed push in 2023–24, with 1,957 new Kendras, taking the total to 11,261. The most significant expansion occurred in 2024–25, with a record 3,796 new Kendras, bringing the cumulative count to 15,057, underscoring the Government’s commitment to increasing access to affordable medicines across the country, despite apprehensions from segments of the pharmaceutical industry as PMBJP eats directly into the profit margins of branded and branded generic medication.
Figure 2: Average population covered by Jan Aushadhi Kendras in Indian states (2025)
Source: Data compiled by the author from PMBJP (no. of outlets) and UIDAI (projected 2024 population), visualised using Flourish
Spread across India
This article attempts to update an earlier analysis done in 2020 by Brookings India – perhaps the only one looking at the state and district-level spread of Jan Aushadhi Kendras. The study found that districts without Jan Aushadhi Kendras were concentrated mostly in the northeast and central India. It also found that the population per Jan Aushadhi Kendra is relatively lower in the southern states of India.
It identified the public perception of generic drugs being of inferior quality as a binding constraint for the scheme’s expansion. This is despite studies from the early days finding no quality difference between Jan Aushadhi medicines and their branded counterparts. Drug shortages at the Kendras were also identified as a major bottleneck. Compared to 2020, when many districts lacked sufficient Kendras, all Indian districts are covered as of 2025.
Average population covered by Jan Aushadhi Kendras has come under 100,000 for the first time in 2025, with 92,964 people covered per Kendra. In 2020, only five states, namely Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh, had more than 500 Jan Aushadhi Kendras. Now, ten states have more than 500 Kendras. However, population coverage varies widely across states, from 16,861 in Kerala to 270,020 in Jharkhand. Some states have their parallel free / generic medicine distribution networks, like Mukhyamantri Nishulk Dava Yojna in Rajasthan, Jana Jeevani in Telangana, Niramaya in Odisha, and Karunya / Neethi in Kerala.
