The central government has announced a 27% reservation for OBC, and a 10% reservation for EWS candidates in All India Quota for undergraduate and postgraduate medical/dental courses (MBBS / MD / MS / Diploma / BDS / MDS) from the current academic year 2021-22 onwards. Nearly 5,550 students will be benefited from the same. PM Narendra Modi held a meeting on July 26 and directed the concerned ministries to facilitate an effective solution to this long pending issue.
This decision on medical education reservation would benefit every year nearly 1500 OBC students in MBBS and 2500 OBC students in postgraduation and also around 550 EWS students in MBBS and around 1000 EWS students in postgraduation.
About All India Quota (AIQ) in medical education
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, Supreme Court introduced reservations of 15% for SCs and 7.5% for STs in the AIQ Scheme.
When the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act became effective in 2007 providing for uniform 27% 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, etc.
However, this was not extended to the AIQ seats of state medical and dental colleges. The union government has now taken a historic decision to provide for 27% reservation for OBCs and 10% 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.
This decision, the statement added, 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 percent from 54,348 seats in 2014 to 84,649 seats in 2020 and the number of PG seats has increased by 80 percent from 30,191 seats 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.
The AIQ seats in medicine were created in the direction of the Supreme Court in 1984. All states were required to surrender 15 percent undergraduate and 50 percent postgraduate medical and dental seats in state-run colleges to a “central pool” with the rest going to a “state pool”. The “central pool” is All India Quota (AIQ) and students across the country are eligible to apply for admission to this.
