Dental education, employment: India
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2016: Surplus of dentists, freeze on new colleges
The Times of India, May 18 2016
Hemali Chhapia
309 institutes across country churn out 26,000 pros a year, many of them now jobless
Unemployment has entered the health sciences sector. With supply outstripping demand and no work for new dental graduates, India has decided to not have any new dental colleges. The decision was taken recently at the general body meeting of the Dental Council of India (DCI), which grants permission to new institutes. The decision follows requests from several existing colleges that the council reject fresh proposals for more institutes, as well as the high rate of unemployment among dentists.
India currently has 309 dental colleges, which churn out around 26,000 dentists every year. The count was as high as 30,570 in 2010. In 1970, only 8,000 dental students had graduated. “It would be a good idea to consolidate our numbers now and strengthen the existing institutes,“ said Dr Mansing Pawar, DCI member and dean of Government Dental College. An exception could be made for states like those in the north-east that do not have any dental college, he added. Some estimates suggest that India has 3 lakh dentists, but there is an imbalance in their spread. In 2004, India had one dentist per 10,000 people in urban areas and one dentist per 2.5 lakh people in rural areas. It was not long ago that the good times were rolling for dentists.It is now, however, estimated that there will be a surplus of more than 1 lakh dentists in India by 2020. The DCI, on its part, has been trying to trim the growth for some time now.
