Govt allows 27% quota for OBCs, 10% for EWS in medical, dental colleges

The government has allowed 27 per cent reservation for other backward classes (OBCs) and 10 per cent for the economically weaker section (EWS) in the All India Quota (AIQ) Scheme for undergraduate and postgraduate medical/dental courses (MBBS/MD/MS/Diploma/BDS/MDS) from the current academic year 2021-22 onwards.

In a press release, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a meeting held on July 26, had directed the Union ministries concerned “to facilitate an effective solution to this long pending issue.”

This decision would benefit every year nearly 1,500 OBC students in MBBS and 2,500 OBC students in post-graduation and also around 550 EWS students in MBBS and around 1,000 EWS students in post-graduation.

The All India Quota (AIQ) Scheme was introduced in 1986 under the directions of the Supreme Court to provide for domicile-free merit-based opportunities to students from any state to aspire to study in a good medical college located in another state, the release said.

All India Quota consists of 15 per cent of total available UG seats and 50 per cent of total available PG seats in government medical colleges. Initially, there was no reservation in AIQ Scheme up to 2007. In 2007, the Supreme Court introduced reservation of 15 per cent for SCs and 7.5 per cent for STs in the AIQ Scheme.

When the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act became effective in 2007, providing for uniform 27 per cent reservation to OBCs, the same was implemented in all the Central Educational Institutions—viz. Safdarjung Hospital, Lady Harding Medical College, Aligarh Muslim University, Banaras Hindu University, etc. However, this was not extended to the AIQ seats of state medical and dental colleges.

The OBC students from across the country shall now be able to take benefit of this reservation in AIQ Scheme to compete for seats in any state, the release said. “Being a Central scheme, the Central List of OBCs shall be used for this reservation.”

In order to provide benefit to students belonging to the EWS category in admission to higher educational institutions, a Constitutional Amendment was made in 2019 which enabled the provision of 10 per cent reservation for EWS category.

In a tweet, the Prime Minister said, “Our Government has taken a landmark decision for providing 27% reservation for OBCs and 10% reservation for Economically Weaker Section in the All India Quota Scheme for undergraduate and postgraduate medical/dental courses from the current academic year. This will immensely help thousands of our youth every year get better opportunities and create a new paradigm of social justice in our country.”