Underpaid Nurses of India: Absence of Recognition, and Respect
Authors: Sur Priyam 
Published: April 2023

In India, nurses and midwives make about 30% of the country's total healthcare employment. Nursing has developed over time to play an important role in achieving the aim of a healthy India, and caring for a convalescent patient from conception to death. The Covid-19 epidemic has shown their importance and profound influence on healthcare outcomes. In the modern world, nurses perform health assessments, develop novel care models, oversee patient care, research new nursing interventions, assess the results of nursing care, increase operational effectiveness, and improve the standard of care (Kaushik, 2022)1 . Many patients don't even recall the names of the nurses who helped them while they were in need, but to these nurses, every patient is the same, and they all want the patients to go back to their families and live healthy lives. India needs more nurses, greater nursing expertise, and a new strategy to meet the country's expanding requirements. India also needs to include "nursing" or fundamental medical training in its high school curricula. This will not only assure more public understanding, but it will also foster a more sympathetic atmosphere towards India's healthcare system. Providing nursing education in schools would make India healthier. Boys and girls who acquire a fundamental grasp of health and wellbeing will ensure a healthy environment. This action will not only spread a fundamental grasp of nursing practise, but it will also stress the value of healthy living, which will contribute to the medium to long-term development of a healthy India and lessen the needless strain on the Indian healthcare system. Nurses frequently deal with challenging situations while carrying out their jobs. Even yet, these women (and some men) are motivated to help the less fortunate by living by the slogan "service the needy." The Indian healthcare system needs more nurses to meet the escalating demand in the coming years because nursing is a demanding job. It is impossible to overstate the significance of the role nurses perform in the healthcare sector. India has made great strides in closing the gaps in the total supply of nurses during the past 20 years. India saw a doubling of its nursing workforce in the past two decades, going from 80 nurses per lakh people to 170. This was made possible by various tangible initiatives made by the Indian government but it’s necessary to implement more structural improvements because this figure is still below the WHO guideline of 300 nurses per lakh people. The #NurseMidwife4Change campaign has allowed the campaign partners, ‘Indian Nursing Council’ (INC), ‘All India Government Nurses Federation’ (AIGNF), ‘Trained Nurses Association of India’ (TNAI), ‘Society of Midwives-India’ (SOMI), and Jhpiego, to start a dialogue about the problems that our nurses and midwives face. They’re hopeful that this conversation will put a measurable impact in the months to come. Successful voice-mobilization for the nursing profession has resulted from the campaign (India Stands at 1.7 Nurses per 1,000 Population, WHO Norm Is 3 Nurses per 1,000: Associations, 2023)2