Reservation in National Quota Medical Seats

In News

Recently, the Union Health Ministry has announced 27 per cent for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and 10 per cent quota for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in national quota medical seats.

About

• The aforementioned reservation has been announced in the All India Quota (AIQ) scheme for various undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) medical/dental courses from 2021-22 onwards.
• It would apply for the All India Quota (AIQ) for NEET, the uniform entrance examination for medical and dental colleges across the country.

History of All India Quota

• 1986:
  • AIQ was introduced in 1986 under Supreme Court (SC) directions to provide for domicile-free merit-based opportunities to students from any State to aspire to study in a medical college located in another State.
  • Although the same examination is held across the country, a chunk of the seats in state medical/dental colleges is reserved for students domiciled in their respective states. 
  • The remaining seats, 15 per cent in UG and 50 per cent in PG, are surrendered by the states to the AIQ. 
  • In deemed/central universities, ESIC and Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), 100 per cent seats are reserved under the AIQ.
• 2007: 
  • Initially, there was no reservation in the AIQ until 2007. That year, the Supreme Court introduced the reservation of 15 per cent for SCs and 7.5 per cent for STs in the scheme in the Abhay Nath versus University of Delhi and Others Case.
  • When the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act became effective in 2007, providing for uniform 27 per cent reservation to the 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.
• 2019:
  • The 10 per cent EWS quota under the Constitution (One Hundred And Third Amendment) Act, 2019 has been implemented in central educational Institutions, but not in the NEET AIQ for state institutions.
• 2021:
  • The 27 per cent reservation for OBCs and 10 per cent quota for the EWS has been announced in national quota medical seats.

(Image Courtesy: TH)

Impetus to Decision

• The denial of OBC and EWS reservation has been the subject of protests for years. 
• According to a report by the All-India Federation of Other Backward Classes Employees’ Welfare states, between 2017 and 2020, nearly 40,800 seats have been allocated under the AIQ in colleges run by state governments. 
• That implies that up to 10,900 OBC students would have missed out on admission under the OBC quota.

Significance of the Recent Move

• Reservation for the OBC and EWS categories within the AIQ will be offered in medical colleges from the current academic year. 
• The OBC students from across the country shall now be able to take the benefit of this reservation in AIQ to compete for seats in any State. 
• Being a Central scheme, the Central List of OBCs shall be used for this reservation. 
• This decision would benefit nearly 1,500 OBC students in MBBS and 2,500 such students in post graduation every year.
• It would benefit around 550 EWS students in MBBS and around 1,000 such students in post graduation every year.

Conclusion

• Implementation of eligibility of this quota has been a long-standing demand from OBC groups and the issue is under litigation in several courts for many years.
• The government was also pushing for the quota for EWS as the affirmative action for this category has been a pet mandate for the ruling party.
• In election-bound states, such as Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, where the OBC communities wield considerable influence, the Central government is hoping to gain from the decision.

Source: TH