The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the establishment of 157 nursing colleges at a cost of Rs 1,570 crore in co-location with the medical colleges set up in the country since 2014, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said. The step would add around 15,700 new nursing graduate seats every year, he said, adding it would also ensure quality, affordable and equitable nursing education in the country, particularly in under-served districts, states and Union territories.
Each nursing college will offer around 100 B.Sc (Nursing) seats every year, he said.

Of the total 157 colleges, 27 will be set up in Uttar Pradesh, 23 in Rajasthan, 14 in Madhya Pradesh and 11 each in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

Bihar will get eight nursing colleges, Jammu and Kashmir and Odisha seven each, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Jharkhand five each, Karnataka and Uttarakhand four each, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh three each, and Haryana will get one nursing college.

The minister said the government plans to complete the project within two years with detailed timelines laid out for every stage of planning as well as execution of the new nursing colleges.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said Indian nurses are creating a mark and are doing a wonderful job across the world and this step will help create more nursing professionals who will cater to both Indian and global markets.

Noting that 26,000 Indian nurses are serving in the United Kingdom, 16,000 in the United States, 12,000 in Australia and around 20,000 in the Gulf countries, Mandaviya said this initiative will help enhance the number of nursing professionals.

Mandaviya also said the services of Indian nurses are considerably recognised in foreign countries and it is important to bring the Indian nursing education at par with global standards in order to facilitate their mobility and better employment opportunities.

He said the move aims to address the geographical and rural-urban imbalances in the healthcare sector, which have led to a skewed availability of nursing professionals and impacted healthcare services in under-served areas.

He said the establishment of these nursing colleges will provide a significant boost to the availability of qualified human resources in the healthcare sector. This is also being done as a part of the national mandate for Universal Health Care (UHC) and will help in attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), he said.

Reforms in regulatory structure for nursing education to meet with the emerging requirements in the sector are also under consideration, he added.

Co-location of these nursing colleges with existing medical colleges will allow optimal utilisation of the existing infrastructure, skill labs, clinical facilities, and faculty, he said, adding that this initiative is expected to provide better clinical exposure to nursing students and will also result in better care and service provision for patients in medical colleges.

An Empowered Committee headed by the Union Health Secretary at the Centre and Principal Secretary, Health/Medical Education in states will monitor the progress of the work and the state government/UTs will intimate to the Health Ministry on the physical progress of the work being done for the establishment of new nursing colleges under the scheme, the minister said.

Of the total 157 new nursing colleges to be set up now, Uttar Pradesh will have colleges in districts of Basti, Faizabad, Firozabad, Shahjahanpur, Bahraich, Etah, Hardoi, Pratapgarh, Fatehpur, Siddharthnagar (Domariyaganj), Deoria, Ghazipur, Mirzapur, Bijnaur, Kishunagar, Sultanpur, Gonda, Lalitpur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Chandauli, Bulandshahr, Sonbhadra, Pilibhit, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat, Kaushambi and Amethi.

In Rajasthan, the new nursing colleges will be set in the districts of Barmer, Bharatpur, Bhilwara, Churr, Dungarpur, Pali, Sikar, Dholpur, Alwar, Baran, Banswara, Chittorgarh, Jaisalmer, Karauli, Nagaur, Sri Ganganagar, Sirohi, Bundi, Sawaimadhopur, Tonk, Hanumangarh, Jhunjhunu and Dausa.

In Madhya Pradesh, they will come up in the districts of Datia, Khandwa, Ratlam, Shahdol, Vidisha, Chhindwara, Shivpuri, Satna, Rajgarh, Mandla, Neemuch, Mandsaur, Sheopur and Singrauli.