A Right to Information (RTI) application filed by 30 year old Vipul Sharma, working in laboratory healthcare at Lady Hardinge Medical College, revealed that AIIMS witnessed an unprecedented surge in applicants for its undergraduate medical programs.
According to the information extracted via AIIMS RTI response, 1,90,740 applications were received for B.Sc. (Hons) Nursing and 1,17,033 applications were received for the B.Sc. allied and healthcare courses for the August 2026 session.
Sharma states that these figures point to the need to educate students about the undergraduate healthcare careers beyond medicine and nursing.
He remarked that students should not consider allied healthcare programs merely as a “plan B” after NEET, but rather as a group of specialized healthcare professionals in their own right. 4
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Allied Healthcare undergraduate programs offer an alternative career path for students who aspire to become doctors but can not secure an MBBS seat.
Approximately 22 lakh students appear for NEET-UG every year, aspiring to pursue medicine. However, there are only around one lakh seats in MBBS, leaving ten of thousands of aspirants disappointed.
Students passionate about joining the healthcare industry are left to explore other healthcare professions.
“Not everyone knows about the multiple professions that cost less to study and can offer good career opportunities. These professions were earlier broadly referred to as paramedical professions, but are now recognized as allied healthcare,” Sharma said in the India Today article.
Allied Healthcare encompasses a wide range of specialized undergraduate programs, including, medical laboratory technology, ophthalmic sciences, radiotherapy, and perfusion technology. Graduated work across diagnostic, therapeutic, and other specialized healthcare services.
Institutions like PGIMER Chandigarh offer specialized allied healthcare courses whereas AIIMS offers nursing and allied healthcare programs across its network .
Institutes of National Importance (INIs), such as AIIMS, PGIMER and JIPMER offer some allied healthcare programs at relatively low cost.
Institutional tuition fees at central institutes typically range from Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 15,000 for the entire program, whereas state-run institutes charge around Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 60,000 a year. In contrast, Private universities and deemed institutes may charge substantially more.
Depending on the institution and program, bachelor degrees in physiotherapy, medical imaging technology and cardiac technology may cost around Rs. 80,000 to Rs. 3 lakh per year.
Shorter skill based vocational training and state paramedic board diploma courses usually cost around Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 70,000 a year.
Highlighting why nursing remains the default choice for many, Sharma noted in his statement to the India Today, "nursing continues to have greater visibility among students, partly because of the clearer government recruitment pathway. The Nursing Officer Recruitment Common Eligibility Test (NORCET) and the government pay structure are among the factors that make nursing a more familiar option for students,” in his statement on India Today.
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Allied Healthcare professionals typically work in specialized hospital departments, including diagnostic laboratories, radiology suites, and critical care units. Hospital facilities operate around the clock, these professionals usually work in rotational shifts.
(Rh/APC)
