Is Govt wrong about doctor count in India? RTI reveals severe discrepancy in Parliament, Medical Council data
New Delhi: The Delhi Medical Council had a total of 72,636 doctors registered with it as of 2020, the Council revealed in response to an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
However, on 2 August 2024, in a written reply to the Lok Sabha, the Union Health Ministry submitted a state-wise count of registered allopathic doctors across India. According to the data provided in Lok Sabha, Delhi had 31,479 registered doctors under the Delhi Medical Council, which shows a mismatch of over 40,000 doctors, compared to the medical council's data.
Medical Council's response:
The council's response regarding the number of registered medical practitioners comes in response to an RTI application filed by Dr Arun Kumar, National General Secretary of the United Doctors Front (UDF).
In response to the queries raised by Dr. Kumar, the medical council referred to Section 3 of the Delhi Medical Council Act 1997, read with Rules 9 to 17 of Delhi Medical Council Rules 2003 and informed that "Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) have been used for conducting elections to the Delhi Medical Council since the year 2009."
Further, the Council informed that in the year 2014 total number of registered voters was 57749. "It is further informed that in the year 2020 total number of registered voters is 72636," it added. The Council also provided the candidate-wise details of the votes polled.
Data mismatch:
Therefore, when the data shared by the Medical Council is compared with the Health Ministry's data presented in the Parliament, it shows that in 2024, the number of registered medical practitioners in Delhi decreased by around 40,000 when compared to the data for the year 2020.
Raising questions regarding this, Dr. Arun Kumar, in a Press Release, said, "A stunning revelation has rocked India’s healthcare data system. Figures placed before Parliament by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) on the number of doctors in Delhi have been found to be in direct contradiction with official records of the Delhi Medical Council (DMC). The discrepancy is not small — it is a staggering 40,000 doctors."
"That means that four years before MoHFW’s reply in Parliament, the number of doctors registered in Delhi had already crossed 72,000 — more than double of what was later reported as the 2024 figure," the release mentioned.
Speaking to Medical Dialogues regarding the issue, Dr. Kumar explained the reason for the contradictory data and said, "The truth got lost somewhere between bureaucracy, negligence, and narrative. This isn’t a data mismatch; it’s a systemic collapse of accountability. The numbers shared in Parliament were not cross-verified with the Delhi Medical Council - the primary statutory authority. Instead, they came from a centralized file sitting in some NMC or MoHFW office - old, outdated, unverified. There’s no real-time, unified doctor registry in India. Each state council works independently. The NMC doesn’t maintain a live-linked database. So, when Parliament asks, officials scramble, copy-paste from previous replies, and move on."
Calling it a breach of trust, Dr. Kumar added, "The 40,000 missing doctors are not just a number, they are a national warning that our data systems are sick, and only truth and accountability can heal them."
Also Read: How many doctors registered with state medical councils? Check out Health Ministry data
