There are no nursing colleges in 40% of districts across India, according to Health Ministry data accessed by The Hindu. In fact, 42% of nursing institutions are clustered in five southern States, while three western States have 17%.
The Centre has attempted to correct such regional disparity with a scheme to establish 157 new nursing colleges co-located with medical colleges by April 2025, as well as providing short term training for nurses. However, it says that a number of States have failed to utilise such schemes properly.
Nursing services form the backbone of any medical establishment. India currently has close to 35 lakh nurses, but its nurse-to-population ratio is only 2.06:1000 against a global benchmark of 3:1000.
Regional skew
Although there has been a 36% growth in the number of institutions offering undergraduate nursing education since 2014-15, resulting in a 40% growth in nursing seats, there is a regional skew within these statistics. About 64% of the nursing workforce is currently trained in just eight States; 42% of nursing institutions are concentrated in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, while 17% are in the western states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. Only 2% of nursing colleges are in the northeastern states.
The growth of nursing colleges also lags far behind the 81% growth rate of medical colleges, with the number of undergraduate and postgraduate medical seats surging at 110% and 114% respectively, since 2014-15.
Global nursing shortages
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), approximately 27 million men and women make up the global nursing and midwifery workforce, accounting for nearly 50% of the global health workforce. “There is a global shortage of health workers, in particular nurses and midwives, who represent more than 50% of the current shortage in health workers. The largest needs-based shortages of nurses and midwives are in Southeast Asia and Africa,’’ according to a WHO report.
“Nurses play a critical role in health promotion, disease prevention and delivering primary and community care. They provide care in emergency settings and will be key to the achievement of universal health coverage. They are often the first to detect health emergencies and work on the front lines of disease prevention and the delivery of primary health care, including promotion, prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation,’‘ WHO said.
Central schemes
To counter regional disparity, the Central government has announced a scheme to set up 157 new nursing colleges co-located with medical colleges in the next two years, with financial support of ₹10 crore per college. “To expedite this scheme, States would be required to send their proposals for establishing their nursing colleges and to constitute a state level monitoring committee to monitor the progress of the project for timely completion,’’ the Centre has advised, according to a Health Ministry report.
It has also expressed its concern about the poor uptake of its Development of Nursing Services scheme in some States. Short term trainings for nurses have been conducted under this scheme, with 18,600 nurses benefitting from 620 courses. The Centre noted that States such as Delhi, Kerala, Manipur, and Mizoram have benefitted from this training scheme, but Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, and Telangana have under-utilised this scheme.
