Nursing and midwifery regulation
Also called: National Nursing and Midwifery Commission Act, 2023, NNMC · Topic: Statutory, Regulatory and Quasi-judicial Bodies · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Nursing and midwifery regulation is the system of rules that decides who can work as a nurse or midwife in India and what standard they must meet. It is set up under the National Nursing and Midwifery Commission Act, 2023, which created the NNMC. The NNMC is a statutory body, which means a law passed by Parliament created it, and its powers come from that law. Nurses and midwives have their own regulator. They do not come under the regulator for doctors or the one for allied health workers, so each part of the health workforce answers to its own body.
Example
Think of one hospital ward. The nurse there is regulated under the NNMC framework. The doctor is regulated by the National Medical Commission, set up under the NMC Act 2019. The lab technician comes under the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP), created by the NCAHP Act 2021. In November 2026 the NCAHP released draft rules for registering allied workers, and those rules do not cover nurses.
Don't confuse with
- National Medical Commission (NMC): it regulates doctors. It was set up under the NMC Act 2019 and replaced the Medical Council of India. It does not regulate nurses.
- NCAHP (allied and healthcare professions): it regulates non-doctor, non-nurse health workers such as lab and radiography technicians. Nurses, doctors and pharmacists are outside its reach.