Believe it or not, India has only one allopathic doctor per 1,343 people

Hyderabad: Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey told parliament that India has only one allopathic doctor for 1,343 people, which is much below the World Health Organization (WHO’s) recommendation of one doctor per 1,000 people.

The country has 12, 55,786 registered allopathic doctors as of June 30. “Assuming 80 percent availability, it is estimated that around 10.05 lakh doctors may be actually available for active service. It gives a doctor-population ratio of 1:1343 as per current population estimate of 135 crores,” said Choubey.

Telangana has only 7,931 registered doctors while Andhra Pradesh has 1, 02,924 registered doctors. Maharashtra has the highest 1, 88,540 allopathic doctors. Mizoram has the least registered doctors of 118 followed by Nagaland with 141 doctors.

Around 52,666 doctors are registered with the MCI.

Choubey said that there are 7.88 lakh Ayurveda, Unani, and Homeopathy doctors in the country.

“Assuming 80 percent availability, it is estimated that around 6.30 lakh Ayurveda, Unani, and Homeopathy doctors may be actually available for service. Considered together with allopathic doctors, it gives a doctor population ratio of 1:825,” he said.

The government noted that the number of MBBS seats has been increased by 48 percent in the last six years. From 54,348 in 2014 the MBBS seats have been increased to 80,312 in 2020.

The number of PG seats has also been increased by 79 percent over the same period. From 23,503 in 2014 the PG seats have been increased to 54,094 in 2020.