You said you belong to the BC category, converted Christian from a Scheduled Caste background under 16A, and your community certificate is BC. You are giving the JEE exam and want to know which category you should choose and what benefits are there.

If you have a BC certificate, it means you are not eligible for the Scheduled Caste category now because after conversion to Christianity, SC reservation does not apply. So, in JEE or any central exam, you cannot use SC.

JEE and other central exams use the Central Government category list, not the state one. The Central categories are General, General-EWS, OBC-NCL, SC, and ST.

The BC category used by your state is not always the same as OBC-NCL. You need to check if your BC community name appears in the Central OBC list. If it appears there, you can select OBC-NCL. If it is not in the Central OBC list, you must select either General or General-EWS, depending on your family income.

If your family income is below 8 lakh per year, and you do not belong to any reserved category, you can choose General-EWS. If your income is above that, you must select General.

The difference between OBC-NCL and General-EWS is that OBC-NCL students get 27 percent reservation in IITs, NITs, and IIITs, and they also get government scholarships. General-EWS students get 10 percent reservation and can apply for EWS scholarships. General students do not get reservation or category-based scholarships.

So, the steps are simple. Check if your community is listed in the Central OBC list. If it is there, choose OBC-NCL in your JEE form. If it is not there, see if you are eligible for EWS. Otherwise, choose General.