Healthcare System in India - An Overview Part 1

October 18, 2021

In this blog post I have attempted to present a basic overview of the healthcare system in India via some charts (hover the pointer over different states in the map to see the details). This post focuses on :

  1. Comparing important healthcare indicators of India with it's neighbors and developed countries.
  2. Comparing health index scores and per capita public health expenditure of Indian states.
  3. Giving an overview of public health centers in rural India.
  4. Viewing the number of MBBS seats available in different states of India.
  5. Understanding the disparity in stipends and salaries paid to interns and resident doctors wrt states.

Some important points to note -

  1. The data used for this post is pre-covid data ranging mostly between 2018-2019. The post will be updated with the latest post-covid data as soon as it is available from a reliable source.
  2. The term 'doctors' in this post has been used for allopathic doctors only. Doctors under the purview of the AYUSH ministry (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) have not been considered here.
  3. A more detailed study will be done and posted as soon as possible which will include the development of healthcare sector in India over time, lack of facilities in public health centers, rural urban divide of healthcare indicators etc. among other things.
  4. Since most of the data used is pre October 2019, the data for both Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh has been together attributed to the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Data sources - The data for the visualizations presented below has been taken from the Rural Health Statistics Report 2018-2019 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Health Index Report by NITI Aayog published in June 2019, World Bank Open Data, WHO data and some newspaper articles. References to some of these websites have been given in the references section.

PS: Please be patient while the graphs load. We are sorry for the large loading times and are working to fix that

Comparing healthcare indicators of India with it's neighbors and developed countries -


Points to note -

  1. The term PPP (purchasing power parity) is the measurement of prices in different countries that uses the prices of specific goods to compare the absolute purchasing power of the countries' currencies. Visit this link to know more about purchasing power parity.
Comparing health index scores and per capita public health expenditure of Indian states –


Points to note -

  1. Even though some states have a better people:doctor ratio than the WHO recommended ratio of 1000 people per one doctor, there is a large scale disparity in the number of doctors working in rural and urban areas. As a result a large scale shortage of doctors in the rural areas has been reported in almost every state.
  2. The latest data on Niti Aayog's health index scores will be updated as soon as it is released.

An overview of public health centers in rural India -


Points to note -

  1. The rural healthcare infrastructure in India has been arranged into a three-tier system consisting of a Sub-Center, Primary Healthcare Center and Community Healthcare center.
  2. This system is based on the following norms - 1 sub-center per 5000 people in plain area and 3000 people in tribal/hilly area, 1 primary healthcare center per 30,000 people in plain area and 20,000 people in tribal/hilly area and community healthcare center per 1,20,000 people in plain area and 80,000 people in tribal/hilly area.
  3. Refer to this article for more insight on these health centers and their requirements and functions.
  4. A more detailed visualization on the facilities in these centers will be done and added soon.

Number of MBBS seats available in different states of India and the disparity in the stipends and salaries paid to interns and resident doctors –


Points to note -

  1. The salaries and stipends of resident doctors and MBBS interns were hiked by many states after 2020. Incentives were also provided to them for their service to the nation during the Covid crisis. This data has not been captured in this chart and will be added soon.
  2. TThe MBBS stipend data displayed above is only for government colleges. Private colleges generally pay a lesser amount when compared to government colleges.

Our Opinion: The health system in India is characterized by the public, and private systems. Indian citizens have access to free healthcare in government facilities. Although outdated, the data clearly shows that the Indian public healthcare system is suffering from numerous issues like poorly equipped and lower number of institutions, shortage of trained manpower, unmanageable patient load and large region-wide disparity. The private healthcare system is significantly cheaper when compared to many other developed nations, but still can be a major burden for middle and lower income class individuals. A general lack of focus from local and state level governments (barring a few exceptions) over the years can be blamed to a major extent for the present condition of public healthcare. Increased adoption of insurance solutions, more efficient and digital insurance processes, increased government spending on healthcare infrastructure and involvement of healthcare in mainstream political discourse can be some possible solutions for improving public healthcare system in India.

References -

  1. www.who.int
  2. data.worldbank.org
  3. main.mohfw.gov.in
  4. www.thehindubusinessline.com
  5. timesofindia.indiatimes.com
  6. data.oecd.org
  7. www.shiksha.com
  8. social.niti.gov.in