In a move that could benefit many National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for Undergraduate (NEET UG) 2021 candidates, the Central Government has approved 27 per cent OBC and 10 per cent EWS quota reservation to All India Quota (AIQ) seats of state-run Medical and Dental colleges.
Centrally funded institutions like AIIMS, JIPMER already have the provision. “This was not extended to the AIQ seats of State medical and dental colleges...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," an official statement issued in this regard said.
The extension of the quota to state colleges will benefit around 1,500 OBC students in MBBS and 2,500 in postgraduate OBC students every year, according to the Government of India.
Around 550 EWS students in MBBS and around 1,000 EWS students in post graduation will benefit every year from this move, the official statement said.
It has been a long-standing demand from medical aspirants to give OBC reservation in all-India quota of medical education. Several litigations have also been made in various courts of the country but the issue has been pending for a long time.
The decision, the statement said, is the reflection of the Government's commitment to provide due reservation for backward and EWS category students.
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 per cent from 54,348 seats in 2014 to 84,649 seats in 2020 and the number of PG seats have increased by 80 per cent 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 per cent undergraduate and 50 per cent 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 the All India Quota (AIQ) and students across the country are eligible to apply for admission to this.
Initially, there was no reservation in AIQ Scheme up to 2007. In 2007, the Supreme Court introduced reservations of 15 per cent for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and 7.5 per cent for the Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the AIQ Scheme. When the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act became effective in 2007 providing for uniform 27 per cent reservation to OBCs, the same was implemented in all the Central Educational Institutions including in Safdarjung Hospital, Lady Hardinge Medical College, Aligarh Muslim University and Banaras Hindu University. However, this was not extended to the AIQ seats of State medical and dental colleges.