After long battle, 27% quota for OBCs, 10% for EWS in all-India medical seats

Students belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and economically weaker sections can now apply for reservation seats allotted to them in medical and dental courses in the country under the All India Quota Scheme.

OBC’s will now have 27 per cent reservation and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) will get 10 per cent reservation under the All India Quota Scheme for all under-graduate and post-graduate programmes, said media reports.

This has been long-standing demand by states like Tamil Nadu, which contributes a sizable share of the seats in its colleges to the All India Quota and especially since Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) already have 15 per cent and 7.5 per cent reservation under this all India scheme. Until now, OBC and EWS did not have reservation in medical and dental colleges in the country.

This announcement was made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (July 29) that OBC’s will have 27 per cent reservation and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) will get 10 per cent reservation under the All India Quota Scheme for all under-graduate and post-graduate programmes, said media reports.

This will apply to courses like MBBS, MD, MS, BDS, MDS and diploma medical programmes and will be implemented from the current academic year.

Also read: Explainer: Why Centre is stalling OBC reservation for medical seats under AIQ

According to a statement issued by the health ministry, the PM had directed the union ministries to facilitate an effective solution to this long-pending issue. A group of BJP MPs from the OBC community had also met and petitioned the PM on the same issue.

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 are all set to benefit from this new reservation every year, said a Hindustan Times reprot.

The PM tweeted that this move will “immensely help” thousands of our youth every year get better opportunities and create a new paradigm of social justice in our country. He hailed it as a ‘landmark’ move made by the government.

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. https://t.co/gv2EygCZ7N

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 29, 2021

While the health ministry said in a statement that the present government is committed to providing due reservation both to the backward category as well as EWS category. With this 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 will benefit from 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 government said.

The All India Quota scheme was introduced in 1986 under a Supreme Court direction to enable students of another state to get reservation benefits in other states as well. Initially, there was no reservation in AIQ Scheme up to 2007. It was only in 2007, the Supreme Court introduced reservation of 15 per cent for SCs and 7.5 per cent for STs in the AIQ.