The Government today announced 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC) and 10 per cent reservation for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) in various medical courses including MBBS, MD, MS, BDS, MDS and diplomas from the current academic year.

“Under the visionary guidance of the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has taken a historic and a landmark decision for providing 27% reservation for OBCs and 10% reservation for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) in the All India Quota (AIQ) Scheme for undergraduate and postgraduate medical/dental courses (MBBS / MD / MS / Diploma / BDS / MDS) from the current academic year 2021-22 onwards,” said the health ministry in a statement.

PM Modi had asked the concerned ministries to facilitate an effective solution to this long pending issue during a meeting on July 26. According to the Health ministry, 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 would benefit from the decision every year.

The reservation was announced under the All India Quota 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 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,” the Health ministry said in a statement issued today.

There was no reservation in the AIQ Scheme until the Supreme Court introduced a reservation of 15% for SCs and 7.5% for STs in 2007.

“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,” said the ministry.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that the decision is 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 30,191 seats in 2014 to 54,275 seats in 2020,” ” said the ministry.

The government also said that during the same period, 179 new medical colleges have been established and now the country has 558 medical colleges including 289 government and 269 private colleges.