IITs to add 779 seats exclusively for women candidates this year
The decision was taken after sub-committee of the Joint Admission Board (JAB) observed that every year enough number of women clear JEE (Advanced) but the enrollment rate of female candidates was much lower.
The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will add 779 more seats exclusively for women applicants in the new academic session this year.
Sayantani Saha, a student from IIT Kharagpur said this decision will help in improving the problem of gender imbalance in the IITs. “It will help girl students to get the privilege of higher studies in premier technological institutes,” she said.
Hoping that the initiative will help in increasing the number of women in the IITs, IIT Kharagpur faculty member Sudeshna Sarkar said, “Over the next few years, the percentage of girls will be hiked to 20%.”
“Additional supernumerary seats created over and above girls who were already coming in. Seats to be decided based on the number of girls already in the system. In the coming year, the target is to go up to 14% girls,” Sarkar added.
Currently, 9% women are admitted to IIT Kharagpur and this year the seats increased to 14%. The decision was taken after sub-committee of the Joint Admission Board (JAB) in 2017 observed that every year enough number of women clear JEE (Advanced) but the enrollment rate of women candidates was much lower.
Of the 779 seats, 113 seats are given to IIT Kharagpur, followed by 95 seats to IIT-Dhanbad, 79 to IIT-Kanpur, 76 to IIT-BHU, 68 to IIT-Roorkee, 59 to IIT-Delhi, 58 to IIT-Bombay and 57 to IIT-Guwahati.
The decision was taken last year by the IIT Council, but a final number of supernumerary seats have been announced now.
