Rohit Shishodia
Union Minister of State for Health Mr Ashwini Kumar Choubey has informed Rajya Sabha that the number of doctors in Kerala and UTs is high as compared to larger states such as Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Bihar. The minister referred to a recent study “Size, composition and distribution of human resource for health in India."

The study was carried out by researchers from the Indian Institute of Public Health, Gurugram. by using the National Sample Survey and Registry data.

The study has revealed that India has an adequate number of health professionals based on the data collected from the registry institutions and the estimated data from the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) 2011-2012 to the projected population as on January 1, 2016.

The study addresses the issue of distribution of Human Resource for Health in the country.  In India, approximately 71% of people live in rural areas, whereas only 36% of all health workers are deployed in rural areas.

The study points out that the density of the total health workers is estimated to be 29 per 10,000 population based on NSSO and 38 per 10,000 population based on the registration data, which is close to WHO’s minimum threshold of 22.8 health workers per 10,000 population. The study reports a rural-urban disparity in the density of doctors and nurses across the country.