One medical college in every district in five years, says BJP manifesto

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems to have chosen a tall target of opening one medical college or PG college per district in India by 2024 in its manifesto released on Monday.

At present, there are nearly 470 medical colleges in the country— both government and private — but a large number of these colleges are concentrated in southern states and Maharashtra with six states accounting for over half the medical colleges in the country.

The ruling party, in the manifesto, claimed that it has successfully established a medical college in every third parliamentary constituency and will now set up a medical college or PG college in each district through public or private participation in the next five years.

“To start with 75 such medical colleges will be set will be set up by 2022,” the manifesto read.

The party also vowed to increase the doctor population ratio which currently stands at 0.7: 1000 for India against the WHO recommendation of 1:1000.

Public health experts welcomed the move but cautioned against allowing uncontrolled mushrooming.

“In the lightly regulated medical education sector, it could be terrible if only private medical colleges are permitted to be opened. It should be done only as a gap-filling measure...” said Oommen C Kurian, a policy expert.

On eliminating tuberculosis, the BJP said that it will roll out a special mission to eliminate the disease from the country by 2025.