India has to cover lot of ground to tackle antibiotic resistance: CSE

India's action plan to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has made limited progress and it must beef up efforts including a clear roadmap to stop overuse of antibiotics and their misuse in animals that are important for humans, a Delhi-based research and advocacy body said Friday.

As the world observes the 'World Antibiotic Awareness Week' from November 12-18, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said by now laws and systems should have been in place to control use of antibiotics and a roadmap should have been finalised to phase out their use in animals that are important for humans.

It said a lot of ground should have been covered in strengthening laboratories, developing capacity and finalising mechanisms and modalities for nation-wide AMR surveillance in food, animals and environment sectors by now.

CSE, which undertook an assessment of India's National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (2017-21), called for stringent limits on antibiotic discharge in pharmaceutical effluents as well ad regulations and measures to ensure appropriate farm waste management, drug take-back and disposal.

"Even after a year and a half after India's National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (2017-21) came into being, there is at best limited progress on only a few critical activities to contain AMR from animal and environmental sources.

"Many of these were planned to be completed within a year. India is going to be heavily impacted by the AMR crisis and we cannot afford such delays," said Chandra Bhushan, Deputy Director General, CSE.

The Indian action plan was released in April 2017 along with the Delhi Declaration on Antimicrobial Resistance' endorsed by 12 stakeholder ministries.

The green body also sought greater clarity on costs involved, dedicated budget for AMR