IITs to Increase Female Candidate Intake to Combat Gender Imbalance: Joint Admission Board

In a recent announcement, it was revealed that the premier technology institutes, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will increase the intake of female candidates in order to combat the gender imbalance that is prevalent in these centres of learning.

Beginning from the next academic year of 2018-19, the IITs will grant admission to more than 1,400 females. The decision was made by the top admissions body on Saturday, 15th April 2017.

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Based on the recommendations of the Joint Admission Board (JAB) of IITs, the following will be implemented:

• An increase of 600 seats which amounts to a hike of almost 14% for the seats allotted to female engineering aspirants.
• From the current 800 seat quota, the total number of seats for women will be 1,400 from the next academic session.
• The quota for women candidates will increase year after year till the complete ratio of male to female candidates became 80:20. However, it is important to note that the number could vary on a year to year basis.
• The 20% seats of female candidates will be filled by only those who clear the Joint Entrance Examination (Advanced) i.e. JEE Advanced.
• Besides the increase in the number of seats, the committee has also recommended awarding merit scholarships to women candidates despite their parental income. The same proposal, however, still needs the approval of the IIT Council.
• The increase in the number of seats for female candidates will not affect the existing number of seats for the male candidates.
• The committee further recommended an addition of two more counselling rounds making it 7 from the current 5.

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Reasons for the increase of seats for women candidates at IITs:

• At present, only 8% of the total candidates across all the 23 IITs of the country are female candidates, therefore depicting a major gender imbalance.
• A drop of almost 2% was observed in the number of girls clearing the JEE Advanced engineering entrance examination in the year 2016 as compared to the statistics of 2015.
• Despite the fact that more than 1,000 women candidates cleared the examination in 2015, only 10% of the seats at IITs were allotted to them.

Sadly, in a country like ours, which is on its way to development and growth in all respects, a major setback lies in the minds of its people. Many believe that it is men who shall be sent to coaching classes, paid for in their educational goals, as they are more suited for technical jobs etc. If the societal preferences and biases are changed, it is possible that the premier institutes of the country can make it to the top in the global rankings which are released year after year.