Among the many benefits of being a vegetarian, admission for your toddler at a good nursery school in Delhi seems to be an added bonus.

The nursery admissions, which began on 1 January in over 1,800 private unaided schools in the nation's capital witnessed several technical hiccups as well as confusion over the criteria for admissions.

According to a report in the DNA, several schools such as the Mahavir Senior Model School at Sangam Park Extension are giving 5 points each for children whose parents are vegetarian, nonsmokers and teetotallers."Schools are blatantly violating norms and there should be some check on them," said Sumit Vohra, a Delhi-based activist.

Springdales, Dhaula Kuan, on the other hand, is emphasising on linguistic and regional minority, including inter-caste parents, says a report in India Today.

"It is shocking to see that schools have such arbitrary rules as inter-caste parents as admission parameters. There are already so many parameters; these only lead to chaos and trouble," a parent who wishes to send her first child to Springdales said.

A PTI report states that the Directorate of Education (DoE) had asked the all the unaided recognised schools to "develop and adopt criteria for admission which shall be clear, well defined, equitable, non-discriminatory, unambiguous and transparent". But still, over 35 schools are yet to notify their admission criteria accurately.

According to guidelines issued by DoE, all schools shall comply with the directive that the number of seats at entry- level shall not be less than the highest number of seats in the entry class during the years 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-2016.

From 2016 onwards, the government has also fixed an upper age limit for admission to entry level classes with the maximum age for nursery admissions being set at four years and five and six years for pre-primary and class-I.

The nursery admission process in Delhi schools have begun from 1 January and will conclude on 31 March 2016.

(With inputs from PTI)