The central government on Tuesday (November 2) informed the Rajya Sabha that India’s doctor-population ratio currently stands at 1:811.
Responding to a question in the Upper House, Union Health Minister J. P. Nadda said that India has 13,88,185 registered allopathic doctors and 7,51,768 registered AYUSH practitioners. Based on the assumption that 80% of these registered professionals are actively available, the doctor-population ratio has been calculated at 1:811.
Nadda highlighted that the country has witnessed a major expansion in medical education infrastructure. Since 2014, the number of medical colleges has increased from 387 to 818, undergraduate seats from 51,348 to 1,28,875, and postgraduate seats from 31,185 to 82,059.
He said the Centre has taken multiple initiatives to ensure better availability of healthcare professionals, particularly in rural, tribal and underserved regions.
Under the centrally-sponsored scheme for setting up new medical colleges in district or referral hospitals, 137 out of the sanctioned 157 colleges are already operational.
The minister also mentioned the introduction of the Family Adoption Programme (FAP) into the MBBS curriculum. Through this initiative, medical colleges adopt villages, and MBBS students adopt families within these villages. Students regularly monitor vaccination, nutrition, hygiene, medication adherence, menstrual health, and lifestyle habits of these families, while also creating awareness about government health schemes.
Nadda added that, under the District Residency Programme of the National Medical Commission (NMC), postgraduate students in their second and third years are posted in district hospitals to strengthen services.
To encourage specialists to work in challenging and remote areas, the government provides hard-area allowances and residential facilities. Under the National Health Mission (NHM), states also have the flexibility to offer competitive, negotiable salaries and adopt strategies like the “You Quote, We Pay” model to attract specialist doctors.
He further noted that the NMC’s Registration of Medical Practitioners and Licence to Practise Medicine Regulations also allow temporary registration for foreign-trained and foreign-registered doctors (who are not Indian citizens) to work in India for limited purposes such as training, research, fellowships, expert visits, volunteering or approved higher studies.
