New Delhi, April 1 Three BJP members of Parliament raised various issues, including exploitation of pharmaceutical prices and the burden of unpaid care work on women, as well as the implementation of tribal development schemes, during Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
Uttar Pradesh MP Laxmikant Bajpayee urged the government to enforce uniform pricing for medicines with the same active ingredient, saying that patients under the Ayushman Bharat Yojana were being prescribed expensive branded drugs by nursing homes, thereby undermining the scheme's purpose.
Bajpayee said that tablets with identical salts were being sold at vastly different prices across brands, amounting to economic exploitation of poor patients.
He said that the government had full legal authority under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, the Drug Price Control Order, and the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority to act.
"The government has the authority to enforce this. No public health medicines are being provided effectively, tarnishing the government's intentions due to company influence," he said, urging immediate action.
Haryana MP Rekha Sharma called for greater recognition of the care economy and the disproportionate burden it places on women, saying that Anganwadi workers, ASHA workers, and lakhs of caregiving women were the backbone of Indian society but remained undervalued.
Sharma said that while government programs such as Mission Shakti, Poshan 2.0, and Saksham Anganwadi had built a strong ecosystem for women and children, a change in social mindset was equally necessary.
She urged that men share equal responsibility in childcare and eldercare, and that care work be recognized as a dignified and formal sector.
Rajasthan MP Chunnilal Garasiya raised the issue of the implementation of the Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October 2024, urging the government to prioritize tribal-dominated districts of Rajasthan, such as Banswara, Dungarpur, Udaipur, and Pratapgarh, under the scheme.
Garasiya said that the campaign, with an outlay of Rs 89,156 crore covering over 63,000 tribal villages across 30 states and Union Territories, had the potential to uplift approximately five crore tribal citizens, and called for more schemes to be implemented in Rajasthan's southern districts to ensure that the full benefits reached tribal communities.