MANISH GUPTA
Ranchi, Oct 19: At 6,073 people per doctor, Jharkhand has the worst doctor-population ratio in the country, reveals data from the Census of India and National Health Profile 2020. The all-India average stood at 1,118 people per doctor as for the year 2020.
As per the Demography Division of the Government of India, the population of Jharkhand in 2020 is projected at 4,00,71,336, while the National Health Profile 2020 states there are 6,598 doctors possessing recognised medical qualifications in Jharkhand.
This analysis does not include non-allopathic doctors. Considering only the doctors who practice modern medicine, the total number of doctors in India was 12,34,205 in 2020 when the projected population stood at 138 crores, resulting in a 1:1,118 ratio for India.
While Jharkhand stood at the bottom in the list of 17 major states excluding the Union Territories, northeast, hill and city-states, Andhra Pradesh had the best ratio of 513 people per doctor. Other states that had less than 1,000 people per doctor are Kerala (528), Karnataka (550), Tamil Nadu (578), Punjab (601) and Maharashtra (679).
Jharkhand Health Minister Banna Gupta in an interview with lagatar.com had recently said that the biggest problem facing the state’s health sector was the severe lack of doctors. He accepted that hundreds of positions in the health department remain vacant.
“We need more than 4,000 health professionals but we have only 2,200 to 2,300,” the health minister had said. However, he said that the state government is in the process of recruiting about 1,900 health professionals to overcome the shortage of manpower.
The neighbouring states of Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Bihar and Odisha all have better doctor-population ratios and these are 3,369, 1,362, 2,805 and 1,901, respectively.
The Union Health Ministry in a written reply to the Lok Sabha in March 2022 had stated that the doctor-population ratio in India is 1:834, including the 5.65 lakh AYUSH doctors. Later, in another reply to the Rajya Sabha in July, it said the ratio of 1:834 is better than the standard of 1:1,000 prescribed by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
