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Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
10 FEB 2026 1:51PM by PIB Delhi
Update on Health Workforce Availability in Public Health Facilities

Health Dynamics of India (HDI) (Infrastructure & Human Resources), 2022-23 is an annual publication, based on Health care administrative data reported by States/UTs. Details of doctor, nurse and specialist availability ratios in public health facilities can be assessed at the following link of HDI 2022-23:

https://mohfw.gov.in/sites/default/files/Health%20Dynamics%20of%20India%20%28Infrastructure%20%26%20Human%20Resources%29%202022-23_RE%20%281%29.pdf

There are 13,88,185 registered allopathic doctors and 7,51,768 registered AYUSH practitioners. Assuming that 80% of registered practitioners in both the allopathic and AYUSH systems are available, the doctor-population ratio in the country is estimated to be 1:811, which is better than World Health Organization (WHO) standard of 1:1000.

As informed by Indian Nursing Council (INC), there are 39.40 lakh nursing personnel in the country and assuming 80% active, resulting in a nurse to population ratio of 2.23 nurses per thousand population.  There are 5310 Nursing institutions including 806 government institutions producing nearly 3.82 lakh nursing personnel annually, to meet the requirement of nursing personnel in the country.

The primary responsibility of strengthening public healthcare system, including filling up of the vacancies in Government Hospitals lies with the respective State/UT Governments. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare provides technical and financial support to the States/UTs to strengthen the public healthcare system in rural areas based on the proposals received in the form of Programme Implementation Plans (PIPs) under National Health Mission. Government of India provides approval for the proposal in the form of Record of Proceedings (RoPs) as per norms & available resources. States/ UTs to ensure availability of HR by creating adequate number of regular posts as per the Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) in the long run and using NHM posts in the short to medium term to fill critical gaps. The NHM supplements the regular human resources by filling up the gaps in human resources in secondary and primary care facilities (District Hospital and below) as per IPHS.

The Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Shri Prataprao Jadhav stated this in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

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