As a solution to the burning issue of unemployment faced by the registered pharmacists in Bihar, the Bihar Pharmacists Welfare Association (BPWA) has wanted the government to implement Section 42 of the Pharmacy Act immediately in the rural and urban areas of the state.
 
Several medical shops in the name of ‘rural pharmacies’ are functioning in village areas with the approval of the government, but no registered pharmacist is there in such outlets to dispense or manage the drug sale. The pharmacists association wanted the government to immediately stop such pharmacies and take action against those drug shops which do not have registered pharmacists for dispensing medicines to the customers.
 
In the meeting held at the Government Institute of Pharmacy in Patna, members of BPWA and students of pharmacy from pharmacy colleges attended. The meeting observed that most of the rural pharmacies and a host of medical shops working in cities are running without registered pharmacists. The medicine customers of these retail shops do not get proper medical advice because of lack of pharmacists in the shops.
 
Further, the association wanted the government to upload the addresses of all the licensed retail shops on the website of the drugs control department which currently carries only 3,000 names of medical shops.
 
Drug expert and secretary of BPWA Rajat Raaz said, as per the reply he received to an RTI application, there are 2,900 retail pharmacies in the state. But in rural areas, government has given permission to sell OTC products by persons who have experience in drug stores. This type of rural drugs stores were implemented at the time when the country got independence. Although 70 years have passed after independence, government is not putting an end to such rural drug stores which are running without registered pharmacists. Similarly, several wholesalers are running medical shops without qualified pharmacists, he said.
 
In order to improve the pharmacy profession, the meeting of the pharmacists has wanted the government to immediately cancel the ‘licenses on experience’ given to unqualified people working in rural areas. The pharmacy council of Bihar must remove from the list the names of those pharmacists who have already expired. In the absence of qualified pharmacists in medical shops, the customers not only get proper advice for drug use but no knowledge or information about the latest medicines or the new drugs.
 
Another demand of the BPWA is that the salary of a pharmacists in a medical store should be fixed to Rs.25,000. The amount should be remitted to the bank account of the pharmacist on a fixed date by the shop owner every month.
 
While speaking to Pharmabiz, Rajat said the number of registered pharmacists in Bihar is 23,000 and majority of them are unemployed. Government is not recruiting pharmacists to hospital pharmacies for the last 18 years. The last appointment in government service was held in 1999.
 
Since complete prohibition of liquor is there in Bihar, use of narcotic drugs is on the rise, but the drugs control department is not taking any action against such illegal drug trade. The meeting has passed a resolution urging the state government to immediately take action against illegal drug trade.
 
Arvind Kumar Chaudhary, chairman of BPWA presided over the meeting. Secretary Rajat Raaz presented the resolution. Pharmacist Manish Kumar, drug expert Rahul Kumar and pharmacy students association leaders such as Phulababu, Saurabh Kumar,  Manoj Kumar Kamat,  Abhishek Kumar,  Subodh Umar and Balram Kumar Vikas spoke in the meeting.