Jayanthi Natarajan’s Perspective on India’s Children’s Health Rights

• The deaths of 25 children linked to contaminated cough syrup have raised concerns about the health rights of children in India.

• The Union Health Ministry has banned certain cough syrup formulations for children under four years due to the risk of contamination.

• The responsibility for monitoring and preventing the distribution of the syrup has been disputed.

• Regulatory agencies responsible include the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, and State drug control officers.

• The focus should be on the regulatory framework behind the distribution of paediatric medicines in India, and the challenges India faces in ensuring the protection it has guaranteed to its children in Article 39(f) of the Constitution.

• There are approximately 13 laws and policies in India specifically designed to protect children, but these focus heavily on protecting children in the workforce and preventing and punishing the sexual exploitation of children.

• The pharmacodynamic responses of children and adults are vastly different due to a spectrum of different physiologies.

• Clinical trials of drugs are usually conducted on adults, and for ethical and other reasons almost never on children, resulting in an alarming lack of paediatric guidelines of dosage and administration.

• India does not have a specific policy or legislation and operates on general guidelines.

• The introduction of the essential medicine concept in the health-care sector contributes significantly to the greater availability and affordability of life-saving medicines.

• Other basic safe practices in the distribution of children’s pharmaceuticals include constant education for care-givers and pharmacists, making it mandatory to read the label, dispense the correct dosage and watch for side-effects.

• Over-the-counter medication for children is an important dimension of public health care.

• India has emerged as the pharmacy to the Global South with huge exports of cough syrups, but this carries with it a responsibility to ensure the absolute safety of the medicines exported.

• India’s health policy regarding paediatric medicines cannot be framed only on the basis of data on children available from other countries.

• Adult medicines modified during administration to children can only be considered as off label and unlicensed. They should not be used at all since they are contraindicated in terms of formulation, age and indicators.

India children’s health rights is important topic for Civil service exam (WBCS).

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