Health workforce

Human resources for health (HRH) – or the health and care workforce – refers to “all people engaged in actions whose primary intent is to enhance positive health outcomes". Health systems rely on the effective deployment of health workers for advancing health service coverage and ensuring the availability, accessibility, and quality of the workforce to achieve the highest attainable standards of health.

The Sustainable Development Goals on health explicitly address health workforce development, with a target to "substantially increase the recruitment, development, training, and retention of the health workforce in developing countries, particularly in least developed countries and small island developing states."

Supporting and investing in health workers through strategic planning, recruitment, retention, management, and training is fundamental to ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all individuals across the lifespan.

India is working to build a sustainable, skilled and motivated health workforce with the capacity to meet the rapidly evolving healthcare demands and emerging challenges. Over the years, the health workforce has grown significantly in size and diversity. The National Health Mission (NHM) launched in 2005 (as National Rural Health Misson) and restructured in 2013 has played a key role in expanding human resources and strengthening public health systems.

India has seen a considerable rise in medical and nursing education over the past decade. The number of medical colleges increased by 88% in the past two decades, from 387 in 2014 to 731 2024, with seats growing by 118%, from 51 348 to 112 112 in the corresponding period — reflecting India’s commitment to meet the growing demands of a skilled healthcare workforce. In nursing, 5299 institutions now produce around 380 000 professionals annually, supporting tertiary, secondary, and frontline healthcare delivery across the country.

The Decade for Strengthening Human Resources for Health in the South East Asia Region (2015–2024) documents the significant improvements in India’s workforce density, particularly through a new cadre of over 120 000 Community Health Officers. This is a cadre of trained non-physician providers delivering comprehensive primary health care at Ayushman Arogya Mandirs (formerly called Health and Wellness Centres).

To enhance regulation, transparency and standards in healthcare education, major legislative reforms have been enacted in India. These include the National Medical Commission Act 2019, the National Nursing and Midwifery Commission Act 2023, and the National Dental Commission Act 2023. Further, the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions was constituted in 2024 to register professionals and institutions across 57 allied healthcare fields to improve governance, transparency and standardization in the sector.

The Government of India recognizes that a trained and efficient health workforce is a cornerstone for achieving universal health coverage (UHC). Among notable achievements are:

• A digitally integrated workforce registry and tech-enabled platforms for education and service delivery that are critical for efficient deployment of health professionals. Notably, several initiatives under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission have laid the groundwork for this transformation across the country.
• Recent legislative reforms that reflect India’s strong commitment to modernizing health professional regulation, promoting transparency, accountability and quality of education and services. Ongoing efforts to strengthen professional governance will ensure a future-ready and competent health workforce.
• The expansion of medical and nursing education to address workforce shortages. There remains a need to scale up training, faculty development and advanced specialties to build a skilled workforce equipped to address complex health challenges and assume leadership roles.

WHO provides technical support in the areas of health workforce regulation, information systems including reporting on the National Health Workforce Accounts data portal, evidence generation on primary health care teams for improved service delivery, and strategic workforce planning. The WHO Health Labour Market Analysis Guidebook, adapted for use at the states level, provides evidence-based insights supporting targeted, context-specific workforce strategies within India’s federated governance structure.