75% of the seats in a district are filled by candidates selected from rural areas and remaining seats are filled from the urban areas of the districts. A candidate who has studied in a school located in a urban area, even for a part of a session in any of the Classes III, IV and V or passes any or more of these Classes from such a school as above is considered as an urban candidate. Urban areas are those, which are so defined in the 1991 census or in a subsequent Government notification. All other areas are considered as rural.
Reservation of seats in favour of children belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes is provided in proportion to the population in the concerned district provided that in no district, such reservation will be less than the national average (15% for SC and 7.5% for ST) but subject to a maximum of 50% for both the categories (SC & ST) taken together. These reservations are interchangeable and over and above the candidates selected under open merit. 3% of seats are reserved for disabled children also. Efforts are made to ensure that 33% of the total seats are filled up by girls.