Thaindian News

Chandigarh, Jan 17 (IANS) The government is seeking to create more job opportunities for dental professionals to provide employment to fresh graduates in the field, Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said Monday.”India is number one in the world to have so many dental colleges, both in private and government sector. Every year, around 20,000 students pass out from these colleges. This area would certainly get saturated at one point, so we have to find more ways and means to create more employment opportunities,” he said.

“We are planning to create more job opportunities for dentists in the hospitals at districts and block levels. Our health ministry is trying to formulate plans about how to absorb dentists at the lower level. It will be a win-win situation for everyone and will take care of the problem of educated unemployment in the country,” Azad said.

“In the coming years, rather than in months, we are coming up with a solution for this, so that our boys and girls are not left disheartened. We are also giving more emphasis on the quality of dentistry,” he said, after inaugurating the second clinical block of the H.S.J. Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital here.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister and Chandigarh MP Pawan Kumar Bansal was also present on the occasion.

Azad also emphasised the vast scope of dentistry in the country.

“In a recent survey, done by an internationally reputed agency, about the smoking habits in India, we found that 35 percent of the adult population smoke in our country. More shocking findings were that 26 percent of these 35 per cent are using smokeless tobacco,” he said.

“As much as 80 percent of oral cancer in India is due to the chewing of smokeless tobacco and it badly affects teeth. In India, 12 percent people, between the ages of 60 to 65 years, start losing their teeth, either partially or completely. Therefore role of dentistry is far beyond what we are looking at,” he added.