The Odisha Cabinet late on Saturday night approved 11.25% reservation for socially and educationally backward class (SEBC) students in medical and technical courses, while also enhancing quotas for Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Scheduled Castes (SC) students.
The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mohan Sharan Majhi and will be implemented in state universities and affiliated institutions offering vocational courses.
Under the new policy, ST reservation will be increased to 22.50% from 12%, while SC reservation will rise to 16.25% from 8% in medical, engineering and other technical education fields. The newly introduced quota of 11.25% for SEBC students will be implemented in technical and medical education institutions across the state, the government said.
The move is also aimed at bringing Odisha’s reservation policy closer to national practices. Since the academic year 2015-16, central educational institutions, including IITs, NITs, IIMs and IIITs, have implemented 27% reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs), excluding minority institutions. In addition, 27% OBC reservation has been introduced in All India Quota (AIQ) seats for medical and dental colleges from 2021-22 academic session.
The revised reservation framework will cover courses in engineering, technology, management, computer applications, medicine, surgery, dental sciences, nursing, pharmacy, veterinary sciences, Ayurveda, homeopathy, agriculture, among others.
Of the 2,421 undergraduate and postgraduate medical seats in Odisha, 545 will be reserved for ST students, 393 for SC students and 272 for SEBC students under the new system. Likewise, out of the total 44,579 engineering seats, 10,030 will be reserved for ST students, 7,244 for SC students, and 5,015 for SEBC students.
The Cabinet decision comes amid growing demands from backward caste groups to extend reservation benefits to SEBC students in vocational education, as they had limited access to quota benefits compared to admissions in public higher education.
In Odisha, the lack of quota for SEBC in technical and medical education has been repeatedly reported by student bodies and community organisations, especially after the expansion of OBC reservations at the national level. The recent Cabinet decision is seen as an attempt by the state government to address these demands while expanding the representation of SC and ST students in vocational courses.
The revised reservation policy is expected to come into effect in the next academic admission cycle, although detailed implementation guidelines are likely to be issued separately by the departments concerned, government sources said.
