Transforming Psychiatry Residency Training in India: From Expansion to Competency-based Medical Education

India’s implementation of competency-based medical education (CBME) in psychiatry represents a major step toward addressing its vast mental health burden, yet implementation remains uneven and compromised by systemic challenges. Despite the expansion of training seats, postgraduate programs continue to prioritize routine clinical service over structured academic activities, leaving psychotherapy, subspecialty exposure, and research training grossly inadequate. National surveys show that only about one-third of residents receive formal psychotherapy training, while significant deficits persist in child, geriatric, and addiction psychiatry. Faculty shortages, limited supervision, and a lack of standardized curricula further restrict meaningful skill development, reinforcing a service-driven and biologically reductionist model that sidelines psychosocial and community-based care. To achieve the promise of CBME, reforms must focus on protecting academic time, strengthening supervision through technology-enabled platforms, investing in systematic faculty development, and incorporating culturally relevant competencies such as evidence-based integration of traditional practices. True transformation of psychiatry training in India requires a shift from numerical expansion of seats to qualitative reforms that equip future psychiatrists with comprehensive, contextually appropriate skills for evidence-based and culturally sensitive mental health care.