Tamil Nadu is a special case when it comes to both reservations and NEET, the entrance test for medical education.
Nearly 69% of the seats are reserved in the state through a constitutional amendment – much above the 50% limit that applies to the rest of India. Additionally, 97.2% of the population in the state is classified as a Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe or Other Backward Class – the highest in India.
Tamil Nadu has also seen protests of late against NEET. In 2019, the Madras high court observed that NEET is discriminatory towards poor students.
In the following year, the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly enacted a Bill that established a 7.5% horizontal reservation in undergraduate medical admissions for candidates who had studied in government schools. The aim was to provide opportunities for government school students who stand at a disadvantage compared to their private school counterparts, due to a ‘cognitive gap’ formed by socio-economic factors, as observed by the Commission led by retired high court judge P. Kalaiyarasan.
This policy is important as it goes beyond the considerations of caste in providing reservations. Instead, it considers a different paradigm of deprivation – the schooling opportunities that the person has access to. In India, only those people opt for government schools who either do not have access to private schools or are unable to afford the fees. Thus, this policy targets those who are economically deprived or geographically disadvantaged within each community – SC, ST, OBC, MBC (Most Backward Classes) or BCM (Backward Class Muslim).
Understanding the 7.5% quota
The existing reservation structure for medical students in Tamil Nadu is 31% for Open Competition (OC), 30% for Backward Class (out of which 3.5% is reserved for BCM, 20% for MBC, 18% for SC and 1% for ST. Within this, 7.5% of the community within each can attain reservation (as shown in Figure 1).
The horizontal quota ensures that there is a minimum representation of a specific group within each of the vertical quotas. For example, a women’s horizontal quota of 10% would mean that at least 10% of the seats in OC, BC, MBC, SC, and others are filled with women candidates. This means that the 7.5% quota doesn’t change the 69% caste-based reservation, but ensures that 7.5% within each is reserved specifically for the students of government schools.
Also read: Why India’s NEET Stands Exposed When Compared to College Admissions Abroad
Who goes to government schools?
Analysing the main provisional merit list, and the merit list specifically for the government school pupils for the 2020-21 session, allows us to compare the community mix of the two lists. In the government students list, MBC students comprise 34% as compared to 23% in the main list i.e., approximately 48% more in proportionate terms.
In contrast, the BC students show a proportionate decrease of 24% – from 45% in the main list to 35% in the government school students list. This indicates the higher level of deprivation within the MBC as compared to the BC category. The third category of SCs also shows that there is an increase of 20% in the government school students list as compared to 17% for the main list. These three together account for 90% of the government school list (see Figure 2).
Impact of the reservation policy in Tamil Nadu
In the academic year 2020-21, 435 out of 5,567 undergraduate medical and dentistry places in the state were reserved for government school students following the adoption of the policy. This is a huge increase from the mere six government school students who had gone for MBBS in 2019-20.
To better understand the implications of such a reservation scheme, we examine a simulation of the 7.5% reservation scheme using the provisional merit list (government quota) and the merit list for government school pupils for 2020-21 session. Based on the merit lists, we projected how many students would have made the cut-off if not for the policy in the 2020-21 session.
For instance, if this scheme had not been implemented, based on both the lists, just two students from government schools in the BC category would have been admitted. However, the present policy provides an opportunity to 113 more government school students* from the BC category. Similarly, the overall representation of government school students has improved dramatically from 0.3% to 7.5%.
Conclusion
This innovative reservation policy adopts a wider definition of deprivation than mere caste. While caste is a rigid and static characteristic of an individual and family, schooling is not. Improved economic outcomes of families lead to students being enrolled into private schools i.e., the scope of this policy is dynamic rather than static.
This policy’s success can be seen from the numbers which have clearly improved the representation of government school students within undergraduate admissions. It further needs to be investigated if this policy has impacted different castes within the same group. The lopsided distribution of benefits within the same block of castes is an identified problem, and whether this policy has helped reach those untouched by reservations would be critical to examine.
A detailed examination of the impact of this policy would enable the Tamil Nadu government to devise even better policies for achieving social justice.
*The above numbers are representative based on the provisional lists in 2020-21 and should not be misinterpreted as actual figures.
Omkar Sathe and Sahil Deo are partner and co-founder, respectively, at CPC Analytics, a data-driven consulting firm with offices in Pune and Berlin. Tanmay Devi is a PhD student of Economics at Rice University.