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Ramesh Shankar
Wednesday, January 1, 2025, 08:00 Hrs  [IST]

The patron of the Tamil Nadu branch of the Indian Pharmacy Graduates Association (TN IPGA) and former CDSCO deputy drugs controller R Narayanaswami has recently urged the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to include pharmaceutical sciences in the syllabi of union civil services examination as an optional subject. Speaking at the 63rd National Pharmacy Week celebration at the Sri Ramachandra University in Chennai, he argued that it is high time for the UPSC to include pharmaceutical science in the syllabi of the UPSC exam as medicine, engineering and several other professional subjects have already been included in the syllabus of civil services examination. This is not the first time such a demand has come from the stakeholders in the pharmacy profession. Earlier, the All India Pharmacy Students Rights Forum (PSRF), the Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA), the All India Drug Control Officers’ Confederation (AIDCOC), and several other organisations and experts in the field have long been raising this issue to the UPSC. The PSRF, most of whom are final year students of B Pharm and Pharm D, is also annoyed by the role being played by the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) on this issue as they allege that there is apathy on the part of the PCI to take up the issues of the students with the concerned authorities. They are of the view that otherwise it would have been realised years back. Currently, UPSC has permitted B Pharm holders to attend the preliminary civil services examinations considering the qualification as a degree. But it does not do any good for the pharmacy graduates to win the examination through their own subjects. They have to choose other subjects of humanities or sciences as optional for the main examination. Whereas, pharmacology is an optional subject for the main examination, accordingly several doctors are joining the civil services.
 
It is time the UPSC considers this issue in its proper perspective. Apart from other basic subjects, agriculture, veterinary, engineering and medicine are also included in the curriculum of civil services examination, but pharmaceutical science is not included. A graduate in pharmacy, either B Pharm or Pharm D may not have thorough knowledge in pharmacology as that of a medical doctor. The government should understand the fact that pharmaceutical science, unlike other subjects, is a subject directly related to the health and welfare of the public, and pharmacists have become an integral and inseparable component of the Indian healthcare system.  At present, the medical graduates have an edge over pharmacy graduates in the civil services exams as they learn about pharmacology in their degree course and also during the specialization in the post-graduation. Priority should not be given for pharmacology as several medical graduates do their PG in pharmacology and opt it for the main exam for the civil services. As far as pharmacy graduates are concerned, it is too difficult for them to compete with the medical students with post-graduation in pharmacology in the exam. To avoid such a situation, the UPSC should provide a level-playing field to all as they should consider including pharmaceutics or pharmaceutical chemistry as optional subjects. Several B Pharm graduates did the preliminary exam in the previous years and passed the tests, but could not clear the main exams because of opting science or humanities as optional subjects. Of course, pharmaceutical science is a professional subject like medicine, engineering and architecture.  So, the opportunities to serve the community with administrative power should not be denied to the pharmacy professionals. Otherwise, it will tantamount to a kind of discrimination towards this noble profession and subject.

 

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Balasubramanian S Jan 3, 2025 1:41 PM
Thank you for high lighting pharmacy graduate's demand pending for last half a century ! Yes it was one of our demands when we the pharmacy students of Madurai Medical College went on a strike including fasting until death and forceful hospitalization of 6 students.Demand still pending! It shows how well our PCI is working!!
 
 
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