NEET 2021: MBBS seats have increased sharply. From data shared with Parliament, Press-Wire has compiled a list of government medical colleges added.
NEW DELHI: India’s medical school system is one of the world’s largest, producing thousands of medical professionals each year. However, the rising need for health-care infrastructure has pushed the Union government to design and construct additional medical colleges. Over 5,000 medical seats have been added since the start of a new programme in 2014.
In 2014, the Union government announced intentions to construct 157 new medical schools linked to existing district hospitals. The ministry of health and family welfare announced the construction of new medical colleges linked to current district or referral hospitals as part of a government funded plan.
The establishment of new colleges was to be done in three stages. So far, 48 of the 58 buses have begun service, bringing the total number of seats to almost 5,000. The others are in various phases of development. In the second phase, 24 colleges were established, with another 75 to be established in the third phase.
According to official data, the number of MBBS seats in the country has grown by 56% in the previous six years, from 54,348 in 2014 to 84,649 in 2020. Postgraduate seats, meanwhile, have increased by 80 percent from 30,191 in 2014 to 54, 275 in 2020. 179 new medical colleges have been created within the same time span. There are now 558 medical colleges in the nation, with 289 being government-run and 269 being private. All of these are accessible through the country’s single MBBS admission exam, the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET). The date for this year’s round, NEET 2021, is September 12.
EWS reservation in NEET UG
The federal government implemented a 10% reserve for economically disadvantaged groups in 2019. (EWS). As a result, seats at medical colleges have been expanded over two years, in 2019-20 and 2020-21, to accommodate this additional 10% EWS reservation while maintaining the overall number of seats available for the unreserved category.
Another news is that the Union government has extended the reservation of Other Backward Caste (OBC) seats in medical and dentistry seats in the All India Quota from the academic year 2021-22. This quota would assist about 1,500 OBC MBBS students and 2,500 OBC postgraduate students. Every year, this measure is projected to assist around 550 EWS students doing MBBS and over 1000 EWS students pursuing PG medical degrees.
The new government medical colleges in India will be built under a central programme in regions where neither a government nor a private medical college exists. The system operates on a 60:40 fund split between the federal government and state governments. According to a report given in 2020 by the parliamentary committee on health and family welfare, a sum of Rs. 2,000 crores was allotted in the budget projections for 2019-20 for the programme of building new government medical institutions, which was later enhanced to Rs. 3087 crores.
In addition, the government has raised the MBBS admission capacity from 150 to 250 students to accommodate additional students. Press-Wire is monitoring the development of the national strategy to increase capacity and medical infrastructure in medical education using data given by the health ministry in Parliament this year.
Government medical college scheme: Uttar Pradesh gets most
The scheme’s initial phase allowed the development of medical colleges in 58 districts across 20 states and union territories. Each medical college cost Rs. 189 crores to build, with the Union government footing the bill for Rs. 7,541 crores. The budgets of government medical institutions in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, and Mizoram were all increased by 90%. In 11 government medical institutions, these states have a total of 1,200 MBBS seats. There are no government or private medical colleges in Nagaland.
The scheme’s second phase, which began in 2018, involves the building of 24 additional medical colleges throughout eight states. The cost of establishing a single medical college is Rs. 250 crores. According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, the Centre disbursed Rs. 3,150 crores. The government of Uttar Pradesh announced the opening of eight medical institutions in the Siddharthnagar district in July. According to an official declaration, the government has hired 70% of the professors. Uttar Pradesh has 26 medical institutions with 3,178 MBBS seats, making it one of the worst-affected states during COVID-19.
In 2019, the scheme’s third phase began, with plans to construct 75 new medical colleges in 18 states at a cost of Rs 325 crores apiece. The government of India has released Rs. 4,111 crores. On June 30, the state-run Chandrapur Medical College in Manipur was officially opened. The college’s first session will begin in September. In this phase, 15 medical colleges were recognised in Rajasthan alone, followed by 14 medical colleges in Uttar Pradesh and 11 in Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu now has 26 government medical institutions with a total of 3,650 MBBS seats.
Government Medical College: Aspirational districts
Some backward regions that required medical seats under government quotas were granted in the third round, according to the parliamentary committee on health and family welfare. Preference has been given to these “aspirational districts” and underprivileged communities under this strategy. According to government statistics, the building of these collages, which were approved in 2019, is nearing completion. NITI Aayog, the Union government’s think tank, is also working on draught guidelines for “viability gap funding” to connect these medical institutions to existing district hospitals in a public-private partnership.
The entire list of government medical colleges is shown here, organised by state, central scheme phase, and stage of completion. The green districts are operational; the red districts have yet to begin operations; and the blue districts are aspirational districts where new institutions are planned.
| Central plan to augment capacity in medical education | ||||
| State/Union Territory | Phase I | Phase II | Phase III | Aspirational |
| A & N Islands | Port Blair | |||
| Andhra Pradesh | Piduguralla, Paderu, Machilipatnam | Paderu (Visakhapatnam) | ||
| Arunachal Pradesh | Naharlagun | |||
| Assam | Dhubri, Nagaon, North Lakhimpur, Diphu | Kokrajhar | ||
| Bihar | Purnia, Saran (Chhapra), Samastipur | Sitamarhi,Jhanjharpur, Siwan, Buxar, Jamui | ||
| Chhattisgarh | Rajnandgaon, Sarguja | Korba, Mahasamund | Korba, Mahasamund, Kanker | |
| Gujarat | Narmada, Navsari, Panchmahal, Porbandar, Morbi | Narmada | ||
| Himachal Pradesh | Chamba, Hamirpur, Nahan (Sirmour) | |||
| Haryana | Bhiwani | |||
| Jharkhand | Dumka, Hazaribagh, Palamu (Daltonganj) | Koderma, Chaibasa (Singhbhum) | ||
| Jammu and Kashmir | Anantnag, Baramulla, Rajouri, Doda, Kathua | Udhampur, Handwara (District Kupwara) | Handwara (Distt. Kupwara) | |
| Karnataka | Chikkamagaluru, Haveri, Yadgiri, Chikkaballapura | Yadgiri | ||
| Ladakh | Leh | |||
| Madhya Pradesh | Datia, Khandwa, Ratlam, Shahdol, Vidisha, Chindwara, Shivpuri | Satna | Rajgarh, Mandla, Neemuch, Mandsaur, Sheopur, Singrauli | Rajgarh, Singrauli |
| Maharashtra | Gondia | Nandurbar | Nandurbar | |
| Manipur | Churanchandpur | |||
| Meghalaya | West Garo Hills (Tura) | |||
| Mizoram | Falkawn | |||
| Nagaland | Naga Hospital | Mon | ||
| Odisha | Balasore, Baripada (Mayurbhanj), Bolangir, Koratpur, Puri | Jajpur | Kalahandi | Kalahandi |
| Punjab | SAS Nagar | Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur | ||
| Rajasthan | Barmer, Bharatpur, Bhilwara, Churu, Dungarpur, Pali, Sikar | Dholpur | Alwar, Baran, Bansawara, Chittorgarh, Jaisalmer, Karauli, Nagaur, Shri Ganganagar, Sirohi, Bundi, Sawai Madhopur, Hanumangarh, Jhunjhunu, Dausa | Baran, Jaisalmer, Karauli, Sirohi |
| Sikkim | Gangtok | |||
| Tamil Nadu | Tiruppur, Nilgiris, Ramanathapuram, Namakkal, Dindigul, Virudhunagar, Krishnagiri,Tiruvallur, Nagapattinam, Ariyalur, Kallakurichi | Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar | ||
| Uttarakhand | Almora | Rudrapur, Distt. Udham Singh Nagar; Pithoragarh, Haridwar | Haridwar; Rudrapur, Distt. Udham Singh Nagar | |
| Uttar Pradesh | Basti, Faizabad, Firozabad, Shahjahanpur, Bahraich | Etah, Hardoi, Pratapgarh, Fatehpur, Siddharthnagar, Deoria, Ghazipur, Mirzapur | Bijnaur, Kushinagar, Sultanpur, Gonda, Lalitpur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Chandauli, Bulandshahar, Sonbhadra, Pilibhit, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat, Kaushambi, Amethi | Chandauli, Sonbhadra |
| West Bengal | Birbhum, Cooch Behar, Diamond Harbour, Purulia, Raiganj (North Dinajpur) | Barasat, Uluberia, Arambagh, Jhargram, Tamluk | Jalpaiguri |
