On Thursday, the government of India has decided to provide 27 percent reservation for the OBCs and 10 percent for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS). The reservation has been announced under the All India Quota Scheme for UG and PG medical and dental courses. The policy would be implemented from the 2021-2022 academic session.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a meeting held on Monday had directed the concerned Union Ministries to facilitate an effective solution to this long pending issue.
As per the government source, nearly 5,550 students will be benefitted. This decision would benefit every year nearly 1500 OBC students in MBBS and 2500 OBC students in post-graduation and also around 550 EWS students in MBBS and around 1000 EWS students in post-graduation.
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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.
All India Quota consists of 15% of total available UG seats and 50% 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 reservations of 15% for SCs and 7.5% for STs in the AIQ Scheme.
The above decision is a reflection of the Government’s commitment to providing due reservation for backward and EWS category students.
This decision is also in sync with the significant reforms carried out in the field of medical education since 2014. During the last six years, MBBS Seats in the country have increased by 56% from 54,348 seats in 2014 to 84,649 seats in 2020 and the number of PG seats has increased by 80% from 30,191seats in 2014 to 54,275 seats in 2020. During the same period, 179 new medical colleges have been established and now the country has 558 (Govt: 289, Pvt: 269) medical colleges.
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Prime Minister lauded the decision made by the government and called it a ‘landmark decision’. He took Twitter to share the information, his tweet read, “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.” He has also attached a link to the official press note by the government.
He furthered wrote, “This will immensely help thousands of our youth every year get better opportunities and create a new paradigm of social justice in our country.”
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Minister of Education, Dharmendra Pradhan called it a historic decision by the Modi government and tweeted, “A historic step has been taken today in the direction of making medical education universal in the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, The government has approved 27% reservation for OBC students and 10% reservation for economically weaker (EWS) students in medical and dental education.”