India has less than one doctor for every 1000 population which is less than the World Health Organisation standard, the Lok Sabha was informed on Friday.
Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel said as per information provided by the Medical Council of India, there were a total 10,22,859 allopathic doctors registered with the state medical councils or Medical Council of India as on March 31 this year.
"Assuming 80 per cent availability, it is estimated that around 8.18 lakh doctors may actually be available for active service. It gives a doctor-population ratio of 0.62:1000 as per current population which is estimated to be of around 1.33 billion," she said during Question Hour.
The WHO prescribes a doctor population ratio of 1:1000.
The doctor-population ratio of the some of the countries are: Australia - 3.374:1000, Brazil - 1.852:1000, China - 1.49:1000, France - 3.227:1000, Germany - 4.125:1000, Russia - 3.306:1000, the USA - 2.554:1000, Afghanistan - 0.304:1000, Bangladesh - 0.389:1000, Pakistan - 0.806:1000.
The minister said emphasis of the government was to increase the number of doctors in the country to improve the doctor population ratio.
There are 479 medical colleges in the country with an intake capacity of 67,218 MBBS seats. 12,870 MBBS seats have been added in the last three years, she said.