With just around 1.38 lakh nurses and midwives for its population of more than 23 crore, the health system in Uttar Pradesh is struggling to take care of the ailing. While the World Health Organization norm is three nurses per 1,000 population, in Uttar Pradesh, it is just 0.6.
Though the State was allocated ₹270 crore from the Union Budget to build 27 new nursing colleges, there are two major challenges: the paucity of faculty for training, and the quality of students who pass out of such institutions.