More than 12 lakh Allopathy Doctors, 7.8 lakh AYUSH doctors in India: Health Minister
New Delhi: There are a total 12,01,354 allopathic and around 7.88 lakh Ayurveda, Unani and Homeopathy doctors in the country at present; who altogether considerably satisfy the prescribed doctor-patient ratio of 1:1000 by WHO with 1:848.
The aggregate on the number of doctors surfaced recently during a Rajya Sabha session where the Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoS Health) Ashwini Kumar Choubey replied to the questions put forward by member MR Bhunia regarding the number of trained allopathy doctors in our country and the ratio of doctors and patients.
The Minister informed that as per information provided by Board of Governors in supersession of Medical Council of India (MCI BoG), there are a total 12,01,354 allopathic doctors registered with the State Medical Councils/Medical Council of India as on 30th September 2019.
Assuming 80% availability, it is estimated that around 9.61 lakh doctors may be actually available for active service. It gives a doctor-population ratio of 1:1404 as per current population estimate of 1.35 billion, which is lower than the WHO norm of 1:1000.
Besides, there are 7.88 lakh Ayurveda, Unani and Homeopathy (AUH) doctors in the country. Assuming 80% availability, it is estimated that around 6.30 lakh Ayurveda, Unani and Homeopathy (AUH) doctors may be actually available for service and considered together with allopathic doctors, it gives a doctor population ratio of 1:848.
The data presented by the MoS Health indicates that the maximum number of allopathic doctors are practising in the state of Maharashtra with 1,79,783 doctors followed by Tamil Nadu and Karnataka with 1,38,821 and 1,24,663 respectively.
Over 52,666 doctors are registered directly with MCI. They are presumably working in States / UTs which do not have a medical register or anywhere in the country.
Next comes Andhra Pradesh with 1,00,587 registered doctors and UP with 81,348. Delhi is recorded to have only 24,999 doctors, while Haryana has 12,345 and Kerala, has 60,565 allopathy professionals.
74,054 doctors are working in West Bengal and 69746 are in Gujarat.
Surprisingly, Telangana has only 7,931 doctors. The states with less than 5,000 doctors are Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim.
Number of Doctors Registered with State Medical Councils / Medical Council of India as on 30th September 2019
| S. No. | Name of the State | Number of Registered Doctors |
| 1. | Andhra Pradesh | 100587 |
| 2. | Arunachal Pradesh | 1021 |
| 3. | Assam | 23902 |
| 4. | Bihar | 44642 |
| 5. | Chattisgarh | 9355 |
| 6. | Delhi | 24999 |
| 7. | Goa | 3890 |
| 8. | Gujarat | 69746 |
| 9. | Haryana | 12345 |
| 10. | Himachal | 3054 |
| 11. | Jammu & Kashmir | 15422 |
| 12. | Jharkhand | 6468 |
| 13. | Karnataka | 124663 |
| 14. | Madhya Pradesh | 39044 |
| 15. | Maharashtra | 179783 |
| 16. | Kerala | 60565 |
| 17. | Mizoram | 74 |
| 18. | Nagaland | 134 |
| 19. | Orissa | 22521 |
| 20. | Punjab | 48351 |
| 21. | Rajasthan | 43992 |
| 22. | Sikkim | 1414 |
| 23. | Tamil Nadu | 138821 |
| 24. | Uttar Pradesh | 81348 |
| 25. | Uttarakhand | 8617 |
| 26. | West Bengal | 74054 |
| 27. | Tripura | 1945 |
| 28. | Telangana | 7931 |
| 29. | Medical Council of India* | 52666 |
| Total | 12,01,354 |
Note - The other State / UTs do not have their own Medical Registration Council. Hence, their workers get registration with the Councils of other neighbouring States.
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