Medical Education – A Story of a Dime a Dozen

  •   Fri, Nov 21 2025
  •   By Dr Chirag D G

November 21, 2025

Back in 2001, when I was attending the CET counselling after my 12th, there were only 18 medical colleges in Karnataka, and getting a free seat then was no less than God’s gift, at least to our parents.

Being the first person to enter medical college from a family full of engineers, teachers, and bankers, I was treated as a prodigy.
But then reality struck me soon in the very first year. There was not a single subject that I liked, yet I worked hard, because that’s what a middle-class Indian those days would do. Our only aim – make your family proud.
With time, I slowly adjusted to medicine and finished my M.B.B.S with good basic knowledge, thanks to a wonderful set of teachers. All of us were trained very well with individual attention, which today gives us the confidence to treat patients without the need for advanced technology or diagnostics.

Fast forward to 2025, there are 819 medical colleges in India with 1.29 lakh seats, out of which Karnataka has 71 medical colleges with 12,395 seats. That’s a whopping four-fold increase in the last 24 years, which may still sound less for a country with a 1.46 billion population.

But let us now come to the real burning and serious question.
Is the quality of education good enough?
Are the young doctors skilled enough?
Do they have enough opportunity?

Today, passing medicine is a piece of cake; almost everybody passes irrespective of their knowledge, all thanks to government policies.
Once they finish final year, everybody wants to only sit and study for PG entrance. With 78,000 PG seats across India, it’s definitely a rat race.
But what about the basic skills they have to acquire during internship?
Today, many of them have zero knowledge about how to talk to patients, how to take a good history, how to examine, how to reassure, how to sympathise, dosage of basic drugs, generic names, frequency, route of administration.
It is scary.

Seeing some of them handle patients sends a chill down my spine, and my biggest fear sets in: “Will these people treat me when I am old?”
Who should care about these matters?
Nobody does, because the ultimate goal is to end up with a super speciality degree.

But what after that? Are you assured that your life is made? An absolute no, and it’s the uncertainty that’s the scariest part.
Today, most of the medical colleges are saturated. A freshly graduated specialist earns 35–50k per month; a roadside Pani puri vendor earns more than that.
Freelancing is the trend today, with doctors marketing themselves like a salesperson, and it’s a sad sight to see.

Many planning to go abroad are also in a dilemma as USA, UK and Europe are already saturated, and they no longer prefer Indian medicos. The Middle East is no better than India. Jamaican countries are the latest destination for now, and that too shall get saturated soon.
The government is also not very keen on appointing regular doctors and is more than happy to outsource everything, including health. Who cares about quality? It’s all about quantity today.

The day will soon come when thousands of doctors will have to stand in queue for one post, and will be one more bunch of educated lot without jobs.
We have heard of a few doctors even working as delivery executives for companies like Swiggy, Zomato and Blinkit. After spending lakhs and sometimes crores, is this the fate of doctors?
In the race to become a trillion-dollar economy, we are only concentrating on the number game while neglecting quality. Is this true “Skill India”?
It is time to introspect and rethink the idea of establishing a medical college in every corner of the country. We need good doctors, skilled doctors, empathetic doctors — not just people wearing white coats.

Hope the story of “a dime a dozen” changes into “less but effective.”

 

 

 
By Dr Chirag D G
Dr Chirag D G is a medical officer at primary health centre, Kudupu. Originally from from Sullia, he pursued his MBBS from Yenepoya Medical College and has been in government service for 17 years.
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Comment on this article

  • Dr Kishan Alva, Mangalore

    Fri, Nov 21 2025

    It is absolutely true There will be shortage of job for the doctors Most of the present doctors lacking knowledge.


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Title: Medical Education – A Story of a Dime a Dozen



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