The Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D) graduates, as a part of their ongoing relay fast near the Municipal Corporation of Tirupati (MCT), demanded that the governments of Telugu speaking States — Andhra Pradesh and Telangana — create a separate cadre of clinical pharmacists across all the government hospitals, putting an end to their long-pending problem of unemployment.
Speaking to The Hindu , before embarking on a massive rally across all the important junctions in the temple city, here on Saturday, the protesters remarked that the promises of a stellar Pharm.D career, on par with that of MBBS doctors, was watered down due to the continued negligence of the State and the Central governments.
“There are nearly 21,000 Pharm. D students/graduates in both Telugu States, who are facing an uncertain future. The course was marketed well during its launch in 2008, but failed to offer the graduates with any form of employment. A total of 118 colleges in both the States, which is the highest in the country, is doing nothing but produce highly qualified but ‘desperate for job’ graduates,” they said.
The protesters said that their long-pending demands had fallen on deaf ears and asserted that the lack of recognition from the governments and elsewhere, had left them without any jobs after the long six-year course. “We fail to understand the nonchalance of the officials to rectify the issues. A similar situation prevails in almost all the 233 colleges offering Pharm.D course across the country, sanctioned by the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI). The number of graduates produced by these colleges, after paying hefty fees and completing their course, have reached a saturation point due to unemployment,” they added.
Their demands include utilisation of Pharm.D graduates in rural medical centres, drug information centres, drug de-addiction centres, poison information centres, patient counselling centres, allowing them to run government generic medicines outlets, utilise them in pharmacovigilance duties and others.
