Binish Thomas (Special Correspondent)
A Question of Priorities:
India stands at a crossroads of a tricky but important question: Should the government prioritise building iconic statues and monuments, or should it focus on strengthening public hospitals and medical colleges?.
The honest answer is that the country needs both — but public health must come first.
The Case for Monuments:
Statues and monuments are not without value.They can boost tourism, generate revenue,and often go hand-in-hand with wider infrastructure development better roads, transport links,and local employment.Landmark projects have historically drawn visitors and investment to the regions around them.
But Healthcare Cannot Wait
Despite this,India’s public healthcare system tells a more urgent story.
Reports over the years have repeatedly highlighted cases where villagers in remote areas lost their lives simply because proper medical facilities were not available nearby.
Many patients are still forced to travel long distances sometimes hundreds of kilometres to reach a hospital capable of giving them proper treatment.
India’s healthcare landscape is markedly different from that of wealthier nations.
The majority of the population depends on the public health sector, since India’s private “multi-speciality” hospitals remain out of reach for most middle class families.
Comparatively, southern states such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala have built stronger public health infrastructure than several northern and tribal regions, underlining a sharp regional imbalance.
The Numbers on the Ground:
According to recent National Medical Commission (NMC) data cited by multiple education counselling platforms, India has 456 government medical colleges offering MBBS courses, with a combined intake of about 63,680 seats.
This includes 410 state government colleges, 20 ESIC colleges, 20 AIIMS institutes, one JIPMER (with two campuses),four central government colleges, and one Armed Forces Medical College.
At the state level, Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of government medical colleges in India, followed by Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, with Maharashtra recording the highest number of government MBBS seats nationally.
Yet even in the highest-ranked states, the ratio of government medical colleges to population and geographic spread remains thin particularly in India’s northern hill states and tribal belts, where access to a hospital often means a long and difficult journey.
COVID-19: A Wake-Up Call;
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed these gaps for the entire world to see.Hospitals were overwhelmed, oxygen and beds ran short, and the fragility of India’s public health infrastructure became impossible to ignore.
With future pandemics or health emergencies always a possibility, experts argue that India cannot afford to be caught unprepared again especially in underserved northern states and tribal areas.
The Demand: One Hospital,One Medical College,Every District:
There is a growing public demand for the government to ensure that every district in India has at least one government medical college or multi-speciality hospital.
Proper public hospitals, advocates say, would go a long way toward solving the health issues faced by ordinary citizens who cannot afford private care.
Infrastructure development roads,transport, and connectivity should continue alongside healthcare expansion, not instead of it.
Private Investment: A Double Edged Sword:
In recent years,multinational companies have poured thousands of crores of rupees into India’s healthcare sector.
While this investment can expand capacity and bring in new technology, there are concerns that purely commercial interests could crowd out affordable public healthcare if left unchecked.
If profit motives are allowed to dominate, quality treatment could become even less accessible to the common person the opposite of what India’s public health system is meant to achieve.
The Bottom Line:
India undoubtedly benefits from iconic monuments and the tourism and development they bring.
But when villagers are dying for lack of a nearby hospital, and middle class families cannot afford private treatment, the government’s priorities must be clear:
Public healthcare infrastructure hospitals,medical colleges, and trained doctors in every district deserves to come first.
