The Union Health Ministry recently informed Parliament that India has 13,86,157 registered doctors, nearly identical to last year’s count of 13,86,136 suggesting only 21 new doctors added despite about 80,000 medical graduates annually.
Reports highlight major mismatches between National Medical Commission (NMC) data and State Medical Council records. For instance, Delhi Medical Council listed 72,636 doctors in 2020, but NMC data showed only 31,479 a 40,000+ gap. Similarly, Kerala’s council recorded over 1 lakh doctors compared to NMC’s 73,000, and Tamil Nadu reported over 2 lakh practitioners versus NMC’s <1.5 lakh.
Experts warn these inconsistencies distort India’s doctor-to-population ratio. Dr. Arun Kumar of the United Doctors Front termed it a “systemic collapse of accountability,” blaming outdated, unverified data and lack of a real-time unified registry.
Although NMC launched the National Medical Registrar (NMR) portal in August 2024 to centralize records, only 10,411 doctors have registered in eight months. State officials allege the NMC remains “defunct,” with vacant posts, delayed appointments, and no mechanism to sync data with state councils.