Aiming to make data repository robust, the Union Health Ministry on Monday launched the Allied and Health care Professional Database which will help the government to track the number of professionals and streams of allied and health care professions in the country.

According to the ministry, more than 3, 000 professionals have already registered on the portal during the testing phase."The portal has a capacity of capturing more than 10 lakh Allied and Healthcare Professionals' data. It may further prove helpful in expediting the envisaged processes viz. licensing of professionals, workforce policy planning, and bringing transparency in the system by maintaining standards of educational and clinical practice etc," said a statement from the ministry.

The Allied and Health care Professionals' can visit the portal on the link mentioned above and provide basic personal, qualification and professional information. The portal will then send an auto-generated email to the registered email of the candidate for verification and will provide an enrolment reference number for further usage.The candidates can subsequently login to the portal using the credentials received in the email and edit the information, upload qualification degree among other details.

"India enjoys a demographic dividend of more than 65 per cent youth below the age of 35 years and the Government of India is eager to provide the country's youth a strong foundation for continued and sustainable growth," said Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan during the launch.She stated that the country is facing increasing burden of lifestyle diseases and ailments, and needs better standards and appropriate frameworks for professionals providing health services to the population.Sudan added that the portal is a provisional measure taken by the Ministry to track and reach out to all the allied and health care professionals in the country till such a time that a statutory body is established.