Number of Girl Students At IITs Double As Compared To Last Year

The number of girls entering the various campuses of IITs (Indian Institute of Technology) has doubled since last year. The number has increased from 995 in 2017 to 1841 in 2018. For boys, the total remained 10,101. The seventh and last round of admission closed on Thursday.

Increase seats for girls: HRD Ministry

The HRD ministry had directed the IITs to keep aside 800 supernumerary seats for girls and increase their percentage to 14 this year reported TOI.

The IITs, however, took it further, roping in about 16.32% girl students. These include admission in both supernumerary seats and also under the gender-neutral quota.

Shalabh S, JEE (Advanced) chairman from IIT Kanpur said, "The number of girls has increased because of the arrangement of supernumerary seats and because girls have performed well."

Read Also : IIT-Kharagpur Ready To Welcome More Girl Students This Year

There were a total of 28 and 30 girls among the top 500 ranks and between ranks 501 and 1000 respectively. There was a total of 430 girls in the top 5,000 ranks and 967 in the top 10,000 ranks. Overall, there were about 3,028 girls among the top 24,500 ranks.

The number of females in streams like computer science and electrical engineering has also increased.

Eligibility procedures for girls

According to the rules followed by IITs, female candidates can apply in both the female only quota as well as the gender-neutral category. But a female can only apply for the gender-neutral pool if she fails to get a seat in the female -only category.

As per the standard business rules set by the IITs, 'category' is considered before 'gender'.

According to the decisions of the Joint Admission Board, the aim will be to have as many as 17% girls in IITs next year and for that additional seats would be created.

The goal in 2020 is to take that mark higher up to 20% and hence more seats will be created by then to accommodate more girl students.

Read Also : IIT-Bombay Likely To Double Seats For Women

Kriti Dwivedi is an intern with SheThePeople.Tv

Picture credits: Getmyuni