Staff Reporter
In a major development Union Government on Thursday announced provision of 27 per cent reservation for OBCs and 10 per cent reservation for Economically Weaker Section in the All India Quota Scheme for undergraduate and postgraduate medical and dental courses from the current academic year 2021-22 onwards.
Union Health Ministry said, this decision will benefit every year nearly one thousand 500 OBC students in MBBS and two thousand 500 OBC students in postgraduation. It will also benefit around 550 EWS students in MBBS and around one thousand EWS students in postgraduation. The Ministry said, Prime Minister had directed the concerned Union Ministries to facilitate an effective solution to this long pending issue during the meeting held on 26th of this month.
The All India Quota Scheme was introduced in 1986 to provide 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 per cent of total available Under Graduate seats and 50 per cent of total available PG seats in government medical colleges. Initially, there was no reservation in All India Quota Scheme up to 2007.
The Ministry said, present Government is committed to providing due reservation both to the backward category as well as the EWS category. 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 per cent from 54 thousand 348 seats in 2014 to 84 thousand 649 seats in 2020. The number of PG seats have also increased by 80 per cent from 30 thousand 191 seats in 2014 to 54 thousand 275 seats in 2020. Health Ministry said, during the same period, 179 new medical colleges have been established and now the country has 558 medical colleges.
In a tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, this decision will immensely help thousands of youth every year to get better opportunities. He said, this will create a new paradigm of social justice in the country.