The All India Drugs Control Officers' Confederation (AIDCOC), in coordination with organisations like FMRAI, AIOCD, IMA, IPGA, APTI, IHPA, IPA and consumer organizations, is planning to build a broad base for the empowerment of the consumer. In near future, AIDCOC will also conduct continuous education program for the consumer organizations.

This was disclosed by Ravi Uday Bhaskar, secretary general, AIDCOC at the Confederation's convention held at Visakhapatnam on April 29 and 30, 2006. The theme of the AIDCOC convention was "Towards Empowerment of Consumers-Regulators initiative." The convention was attended by Ranga Rao, director, APDCA; SW Deshpande, president, AIDCOC; Surendranath Sai, general secretary, Drugs Inspectors Association, Andhra Pradesh; DV Subba Rao, former chairman, Bar Council of India, V Dinesh Reddy, director general, Drugs & Copy right, Andhra Pradesh; officers of the Drugs Control Administration from all over the country, national leaders of AIOCD and FMRAI.

AIDCOC has proposed to put up hoardings in all the metro cities at prominent places to disseminate useful information to the consumers about drugs. Earlier, AIDCOC in coordination with Jharkhand Drugs Control Officers Association held meetings with consumer organsiations and distributed informative pamphlets about the purchase and usage of the drugs to the consumers through community pharmacies.

In the past, AIDCOC has organized panel discussion on 'Awareness on Spurious Drugs' at Visakhapatnam, where it presented the facts on percentage of spurious drugs and the inadequacies in the Drugs Control Organisation. In line with AIDCOC's focus on consumer education through direct action, it launched National project on Consumer Awareness at Visakhapatnam. States like Maharashtra have already taken steps towards this direction, Uday Bhaskar informed.

AIDCOC also encouraged its members to bring in transparency in working system and have more interaction with the consumers and as a pilot project "Empowerment of Consumer through e-Governance," was launched at Eluru and the information relevant to consumers in usage of Drugs and information on banned drugs, notified prices of drugs, possible drug interactions was brought out in the form of a CD and made available to the public.

AIDCOC in collaboration with Mizoram Drugs Control Officers Association also organized a workshop at Aizwal, on the theme "Effective Drugs Control Mechanism- The Need Of The Region" where the drugs control officers from Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur, Assam have participated. Its view points on the measures needed to tackle the menace of spurious drugs, strengthening the Drugs Control Organisation were raised at all the platforms, forums and in the form of representations to the Union and State Governments, he added.