A dearth of seats in Government Dental colleges

For a country like India with a huge population and increment of around 18 million people every year, India faces a shortage of dentist as the dental institutes in India roughly provides only 24,000 dentists annually.

Out of these 24,000 graduates, many prefer to get admission and later jobs in the government sector. The main reason for that is high fees in private dental colleges and more competition in private jobs without any higher salary being paid in comparison to government clinics and hospitals. But the chance to study in government dental colleges is minimal since each state in India has hardly 1 to 4 colleges that offer BDS (Bachelor of Dental Surgery) program and around 10 colleges that offer MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) program.

In India, there are only 47 government dental colleges that offer 2,930 seats for BDS according to the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on March 2018. Whereas, 260 private colleges in India provide 24,130 seats for BDS program. 

Even with such scarcity of seats for the BDS program, the Dental Council of India (DCI) had declared in 2016 that it won’t be taking any request for new dental institutes in the country. Further, the re-introduction of NEET exam in 2016 had put a lot of pressure on the Dental institutes in India. The NEET examination is the common entrance test for admissions in government as well as private medical colleges. But one of its components is challenging for many students as it states that 85 percent of seats in a government college in particular state will be reserved only for students residing in that state and the remaining 15 percent for students from across the country. Fortunately, there are no such reservations in private colleges.

After these regulations, the situation deteriorated for students who want to aim for a seat in government dental college. Even in dental colleges in Delhi NCR, only 140 seats for BDS program are available. There are only three government dental colleges in Delhi NCR. Being a metropolitan city and capital of India, such numbers are lesser than states like Kerala with 5 government dental colleges, Maharashtra, and Gujarat with 4 government college each.

Thus, looking at the uneven and a dearth of government dental colleges across India, the domicile policy should be struck down and students should be given the opportunity to take admission in any college situated in whichever state in India.

The Struggle in BDS Course in India

The Dental institutes and the field of Dentistry in India are dealing with many issues for decades. The whole dental community is fighting at both the internal and external level. There are external issues like unemployment, unequal distribution of resources, non-economic factors, ignorance regarding oral health care and many more. Some of the internal factors include very few government colleges as compared to a number of private colleges especially BDS colleges in India, high fees at private institutes, domicile policy under NEET examination in some states in India.

Despite these issues, the dental treatments have improved and thus people have started giving their oral health more time and importance. As per the Indian Medical Device Market, the Indian Dental market has witnessed a growth of 5 percent in the last 5 years. The overall growth of the Asian Dental market is 10 percent, which is the highest growth and is more than the United States.  

Such growth has helped the industry to fight with its current issues and overcome the hurdles in order to provide better opportunities to the future generation. As the demand for dentistry will increase, it will balance out the over-supply of dentists in India. But to keep up and create further demand, the dental institutes will also have to upgrade their courses and equipment which is bad news for government dental colleges as they will have to spend more.

Last year, the government of Uttar Pradesh had to intervene and curb the fixed fees for both medical and dental colleges. The fees for BDS was fixed between Rs 1.37 lakh and Rs 3.65 lakh and this was made applicable to 3 academic sessions i.e. till 2020. The BDS colleges in India were asking for Rs 9-13 lakh for the course before. So it was a relief for many students in Uttar Pradesh. Except for few colleges in Greater Noida and Lucknow, all dental colleges have reduced their course fee.

BDS course fee in many cities of Uttar Pradesh like Meerut, Bareilly, Moradabad, Mathura, Gorakhpur, Barabanki, Aligarh, and Azamgarh has been reduced. BDS at Kalka Dental college in Meerut costs Rs3.75 lakh including hostel and mess fees, BDS at Chandra Dental college in Barabanki is Rs 1.67 lakh, and BDS at Institute of Dental Science in Bareilly costs Rs 3.03 lakh per year.

Such radical changes and the introduction of new policies by the government along with the technological and research development will harness the dental sector in India.