New Delhi: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has taken 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.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a meeting held on 26th July (Monday), 2021 had directed the concerned Union Ministries to facilitate an effective solution to this long pending issue.

The Prime Minister said, "This will immensely help thousands of our youth every year get better opportunities and create a new paradigm of social justice in our country".

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According to the ministry, the reservation would benefit every year nearly 1500 OBC students in MBBS and 2500 OBC students in post-graduation. Also, around 550 EWS students in MBBS and about 1000 EWS students in post-graduation.

Union Minister of Education, Dharmendra Pradhan said, "The landmark decision is in-sync with the reforms carried out in the field of medical education since 2014. Without reducing the number of seats available for the unreserved category, this step will benefit more than 5500 students from the backward and economically weaker sections".

Initially, there was no reservation in the AIQ up to 2007. That year, the Supreme Court introduced the reservation of 15% for SCs and 7.5% for STs in the scheme.

When the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act became effective in 2007, providing for uniform 27% reservation to the OBCs. But the Act was not extended to the AIQ seats of State medical and dental colleges.