The government has decided to to provide 27% reservation for OBCs & 10% reservation for Economically Weaker Section in the All India Quota Scheme for UG and PG medical/dental courses (MBBS/MD/MS/Diploma/BDS/MDS) from the current academic year 2021-22 onwards, said the Health Ministry.
The ministry officials added that nearly 5,550 students will be benefitted from the new reservations. This decision would benefit every year nearly 1,500 OBC students in MBBS and 2,500 OBC students in postgraduation and also around 550 EWS students in MBBS and around 1,000 EWS students in postgraduation.
The move on reservation for backward classes and economically weaker sections of the society was taken by the government in a bid to prioritise medical education and make it more accessible.
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. Around 1,500 OBC students in MBBS and 2,500 in postgraduation will be benefitted through this reservation.
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% reservation for EWS category. Accordingly, seats in medical / dental colleges were increased over two years in 2019-20 and 2020-21 to accommodate this additional 10% 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.
The government is committed to providing due reservation both to Backward Category and EWS Category, Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in a tweet.
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 have 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.
