Why nurses are not allowed to work as nurse practitioners in India

In India you can sell tobacco and alcohol, but you cannot practice nursing independently as a nurse practitioner, even in an underserved area. A community nurse practitioner would mean loss of monopoly over manpower, which allows pittance to be paid, and no real incentive to upgrade your skills. What is the use of looking after someone else's family, when you cannot treat your own family.

A nurse from India can go to other countries and become a nurse practitioner there, but cannot practice in his/her own community. Then we talk about brain drain, and the (artificial) shortage of health care workers and that they do not want to work in underserved areas.

The clinical establishment act and the zamindari system of corporate healthcare ensures that irrespective of the economic status of the area, the clinic should have the same facility as a 4 star hospital in a metro. While there is no land or tax subsidy for a healthcare provider for working in an underserved area, the corporate has been given land subsidies to the tune of Re 1 per square meter , in prime metro area. While there is no tax subsidy for getting treated at government hospital, there is exemption on private health insurance, and corporate hospitals in the name of corporate social responsibility. Expensive medical education, and no allowance for community nurse practitioner and lab technician, are means for cheap labor for private hospitals.

The result is more and more people are dropping out of healthcare and instead moving towards management and legal profession.