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Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Bihar are among the top states chosen by medical students to pursue their medical education. The number of students who appeared for NEET in India has also increased from last year. For this, the government plans to add more institutes.
With an increase in the number of medical aspirants, the number of medical institutes across different states in India has also increased. Previously, states like Maharashtra and Karnataka were the top choice for medical students to pursue their medical education. Now with the rapid increase in the number of medical institutes in many states, students are now opting for new medical institutes as well.
Within a span of 3 years, i.e from 2017-2019, the country has seen the establishment of 72 new medical colleges across the various states in India, which brings the total number of medical institutes/colleges in India to a whopping 529 institutes/colleges. Sources state that there has been a significant rise in the number of students opting for medical education. Thus, for this purpose, both the Central as well as State Governments have been contributing towards the increase in the capacity of medical education. They further added that funds are in place to establish more UG, PG as well as dental colleges in Maharashtra by next year.
Sources have stated that students have opted for medical institutions in states such as Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh over the span of three years, instead of choosing Karnataka or Maharashtra. They state the reason for this change has been due to the increasing number of approved medical institutes in these states. Statistically, sources state, over 15 lakh students have appeared for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) in May 2019 which is higher than 13.26 lakh students who appeared last year. Sources state that the highest number of applicants are from Maharashtra with around 1,57 lakh and 1.40 lakh students from Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu while 99,711 students from Rajasthan and 84,443 students from Bihar appeared for the exam in 2019.
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According to the Minister of Health and Welfare, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, the Ministry has plans for implementing a Central Government-sponsored scheme to be used for the establishment of medical colleges affiliated or attached to the already existing district or referral hospitals. He further added that the scheme has already begun with the first phase and have successfully chosen as well as approved 58 districts in 20 different states as well as Union Territories. In addition to this, he said that currently, the fund-sharing ratio between the Central Government and the states is 60:40. However, the governments in the northeastern states, as well as the special category states, will be fund-sharing with the Central Government in a ratio of 90:10.
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Sources state the Government has been on a mission to increase the number of medical colleges in the state of Maharashtra, however, parents of medical aspirants have stated over and over again the need to develop infrastructure in order to accommodate more medical students in the state. An activist and a parent has told sources that the medical students who have taken admission in some of the medical colleges situated in the far-flung rural areas of the country are devoid of decent faculty or even equipment for their practical classes. She further pointed out that the approval of medical institutes does not substitute for a good student-teacher ratio.
