The Odisha government on Tuesday issued a notification to implement an enhanced reservation quota for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) students, alongside introducing a brand-new quota for Socially and Economically Backward Classes (SEBC) across medical and technical education institutions, starting from the 2026-27 academic session.
This sweeping educational reform traces back to a landmark decision made by the state cabinet, led by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, on April 4 this year, which has now been formally authorized and notified by the Department of ST and SC Development, Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare.
Under the newly issued directives, the quota seat matrix undergoes a substantial shift – the reservation for ST candidates is being raised up from 12 per cent to 22.50 per cent, while the allocation for SC students has been enhanced from 8 per cent to 16.25 per cent. The state government has introduced an 11.25 per cent quota for OBC students, who are known as SEBC in Odisha.
The state government clarified that while calculating the total pool of approved seats across higher education institutions to apply these percentages, any seats designated under the all-India quota will remain strictly excluded from the computation.
Furthermore, the horizontal reservation system and quota for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) will be implemented in accordance with the prevailing norms.
According to a statement from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), this policy expansion allows students from these marginalized categories to access reserved allocations in highly sought-after professional branches, including engineering, ITI, diplomas, technology, management, computer applications, medicine, surgery, dental, nursing, pharmacy, allied health sciences, and veterinary science across all state universities, polytechnics, and affiliated colleges.
The SEBC or OBC people got their rights 79 years after independence, it said.
In Odisha, the population of Scheduled Tribes is 22.85 per cent, while 17.13 per cent of the people belong to the Scheduled Caste. Although the number of educationally and socially backward classes is not known, it is quite high, the CMO said.
