Doctor-population ratio in India better than WHO standard, says Govt

The doctor-population ratio in the country is 1:836, which is better than the WHO standard of 1:1000, Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel told the Lok Sabha on Friday. According to the information provided by the National Medical Commission (NMC), there are 13,86,136 allopathic doctors registered with the State Medical Councils and the National Medical Commission (NMC) as on July, 2024, Patel said in a written reply.

"Assuming 80% availability of registered allopathic doctors and around 5.65 lakh AYUSH doctors, the doctor-population ratio in the country is around 1:836 which is better than the WHO standard of 1:1000," Patel stated.

She also said that there are 731 medical colleges in the country with an annual intake of 1,12,112 MBBS seats as of now. Further, there are 72,627 PG seats as of date, she said.

Measures taken by the government to augment medical education facilities and to improve medical standards include Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for establishment of new medical colleges by upgrading district/referral hospitals, under which 157 new medical colleges have been approved and 109 are already functional.

Under the CSS, medical colleges have been upgraded to increase the number of MBBS (UG) and PG seats. Support has been provided for an increase of 4,977 MBBS seats in 83 colleges with an approved cost of Rs 5,972.20 crore, 4,058 PG seats in phase-I in 72 colleges with an approved cost of Rs 1,498.43 crore and 4,000 PG seats in phase-II in 65 colleges with an approved cost of Rs 4,478.25 crore.

Besides, under "upgradation of government medical colleges by construction of super specialty blocks" component of Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), 75 projects have been approved, of which 66 projects are complete.

Under the Central Sector Scheme for setting up of new AIIMS, 22 AIIMS have been approved and undergraduate courses have started in 19 of these. Also, DNB qualification has been recognised for appointment as teaching faculty, to take care of shortage of faculty and there has been enhancement of age limit for appointment, extension or re-employment against posts of teachers/dean/principal/ director in medical colleges up to 70 years.

Claims of Indians being unfit "extrapolated"

Furthermore, Union Health Minister J P Nadda told the Lok Sabha today that WHO's recent report stating that half of India's adult population is physically unfit relied on data collected only from three states and one UT, and the results were extrapolated through a modelling technique indicating inbuilt methodological issues.

Responding to a question, Nadda said the WHO defines 'sufficient physical activity' as 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activities per week (brisk walk, lifting light load etc.) or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity per week (running, digging, construction work, outdoor games etc.). The activity level so quantified is based on a self-reported response to questions about physical activity lasting at least for 10 minutes.

The National NCD Monitoring Survey of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) 2020 has assessed, inter alia, physical activity amongst Indian adults and found that 58.7% had conformed to the WHO recommendations, Nadda told the Lok Sabha.