Lok Sabha Question No. 101 (STARRED), answered on 2024-02-09
Subject: Shortage of Mental Healthcare Professionals
Ministry: HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
Asked by: Sanjeev Kumar Singari, Vishnu Dutt Sharma

## GOVERNMENT OFINDIA MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE DEPARTMENTOFHEALTH AND FAMILYWELFARE

## LOKSABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 101 TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 9 TH FEBRUARY, 2024

## SHORTAGE OFMENTALHEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS

## *101. DR. SANJEEV KUMAR SINGARI: SHRI VISHNU DATT SHARMA:

Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government is aware that India has one of the lowest number of mental health care professionals per capita and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether the Government plans to take steps such as training healthcare workers to properly address mental health issues and reducing the social stigma associated with mental illness in the country; and
- (c) the details regarding the Government ' s current spending on mental health in terms of our GDP in the country

## ANSWER THE MINISTER OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE

## (DR MANSUKH MANDAVIYA)

- (a) to ( c) A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 101 FOR 9 TH FEBRUARY, 2024

(a) & (b): As per information provided by National Medical Commission (NMC), there are 13,08,009 allopathic doctors registered with the State Medical Councils and the National Medical Commission (NMC) as on June, 2022. Assuming 80% availability of registered allopathic doctors and 5.65 lakh AYUSH doctors, the doctor-population ratio in the country is 1:834 which is better than the WHO standard of 1:1000. Also, there are 34.33 lakh registered nursing personnel and 13 lakh Allied and Healthcare Professionals in the country.

The Government has increased number of medical colleges and subsequently increased MBBS seats. There is an increase of 82% in medical colleges from 387 before 2014 to 706 as of now. Further, there is an increase of 112% in MBBS seats from 51,348 before 2014 to 1,08,940 as of now, there is also an increase of 127% in PG seats from 31,185 before 2014 to 70,674 as of now.

For increasing the number of psychiatrists in the Country, PGMEB of NMC has issued the Minimum Standard of Requirements for Post-Graduate Courses - 2023 (PGMSR-2023) on 15.1.2024. For starting/ increase of seats in MD (Psychiatry), PGMSR-2023 has brought down the number of OPD to 30 per day, for annual intake of maximum 2 PG students with 20% increase for each additional seat. Similarly, the minimum beds required per unit for starting MD (Psychiatry) course with 2 seats in a medical college is 8 beds and 12 beds for 3 seats and 20 beds for 5 seats.

Under the tertiary care component of NMHP, 25 Centres of Excellence have been sanctioned to increase the intake of students in PG departments in mental health specialities as well as to provide tertiary level treatment facilities. Further, the Government has also supported 19 Government medical colleges/institutions to strengthen 47 PG Departments in mental health specialties. Mental Health Services are also provisioned for 22 AIIMS through Psychiatry Departments.

Mental Health infrastructure development is being implemented across the primary, secondary, and tertiary care facilities for implementing the measures detailed in National Mental Health Policy 2014. As part of the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP), the District Mental Health Programme (DMHP) component has been sanctioned for implementation in 738 districts of the country, for which support is provided to States/UTs through the National Health Mission. As per DMHP Guidelines, one psychiatrist, one clinical psychologist, one psychiatric social worker, one psychiatric nurse, one community nurse, one monitoring and evaluation officer and case registry assistant and one ward assistant are the staff of the District Mental Health Programme Team.

Under the District Mental Health Programme implemented under the National Mental Health Programme, the manpower is trained at various DMHP units. One of the components of DMHP is to provide training to specialist and nonspecialist cadres such as Medical Officers, Psychologists, Social Workers, and Nurses.

The Government is also augmenting the availability of manpower to deliver mental healthcare services in the underserved areas of the country by providing online training courses to various categories of general healthcare medical and para medical professionals through the Digital Academies, since 2018, established at the three Central Mental Health Institutes namely National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bengaluru, Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi Regional Institute of Mental Health, Tezpur, Assam, and Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi. The number of trained professionals under Digital Academy are as follows:

|   Sr. No. | Institute          |   No. of professionals trained |
|-----------|--------------------|--------------------------------|
|         1 | NIMHANS, Bengaluru |                          22374 |
|         2 | LGBRIMH, Tezpur    |                            561 |
|         3 | CIP, Ranchi        |                            237 |

To generate awareness among masses about mental illnesses Information, Education and Communication (IEC) activities are an integral part of the NMHP. At the District level, sufficient funds are provided to each District under the DMHP under the Non-communicable Diseases flexi-pool of National Health Mission for IEC and awareness generation activities in the community, schools, workplaces, with community involvement. Under the DMHP various IEC activities such as awareness messages in local newspapers and radio, street plays, wall paintings etc. are undertaken by the States/UTs.

(c): In the FY 2022-23, the budget allocated for National Mental Health Programme (NMHP), District Mental Health Programme (DMHP), National Tele-Mental Health Programme (NTMHP) (launched on 10.10.2022), National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi Regional Institute of Mental Health (LGBRIMH), Tezpur, Assam and Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP), Ranchi, is Rs. 1070.72 crore.

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