Role of Private Sector in Medical Education and Human Resource Development For Health in India

This paper examines the growth, geographic distribution, and quality concerns of medical education in India, particularly in the private sector. It is observed that an important feature of the considerable growth of medical education experienced in India, especially after the 1990s, is the significant growth of private medical education. During the last two and a half decades (1990 to 2014), private medical colleges have increased by 405 percent compared to 72 per cent for government medical colleges and currently, private sector owns more than half of the total medical schools and student enrollments. Interestingly, this growth has occurred primarily in economically better‐off and healthier states of India (having three‐fourth of the total private medical colleges), while the low‐income states are lagging behind though they have poor health indicators. The unequal distribution of medical colleges has resulted regional differences in the access to doctors in the country. Also, there are concerns about the quality of medical graduates produced from the private institutions. The paper suggests policy actions for correcting geographical imbalances in the production and distribution of medical graduates and increasing the density of quality doctors in India