27pc reservation for OBCs,10pc for economically weaker sections in medical courses announced

The Centre, on Thursday, announced a 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in undergraduate and postgraduate medical and dental courses from the current academic year 2021-22. The government has also announced 10 per cent reservation for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) in the same courses.

The move is expected to benefit nearly 1,500 OBC students in MBBS and 2,500 OBC students in post-graduation every year. Around 550 EWS students in MBBS and around 1,000 EWS students in post-graduation will also benefited from the government decision every year.

"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," Prime Minisetr Narendra Modi said in a tweet.

"This will immensely help thousands of our youth every year get better opportunities and create a new paradigm of social justice in our country," he added.

In a meeting held on Monday, the prime minister had directed the concerned Union ministries to facilitate an effective solution to the long pending issue of reservation in medical courses.

The decision is in sync with the significant reforms carried out in the field of medical education since 2014, stated a government release.

"The present government is committed to providingdue reservation both to the backward category as well as the EWS category. The Union government has now taken a historic decision to provide for 27 per cent reservation for OBCs and 10 per cent reservation for EWS in the AIQ Scheme. 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. Being a Central scheme, the Central List of OBCs shall be used for this reservation," the Centre said.

AIQ Scheme

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 who aspire to study in a good medical college located in another state. 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. 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 and Banaras Hindu University among others. However, this was not extended to the AIQ seats of state medical and dental colleges.

In order to provide benefit to students belonging to 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. Accordingly, seats in medical and dental colleges were increased over two years in 2019-20 and 2020-21 to accommodate this additional 10 per cent EWS reservation so that the total number of seats available for unreserved category do not reduce. In the AIQ seats, however, this benefit had not been extended so far.