Female enrolment in IITs rise to 20% after introduction of supernumerary seats

IIT admissions council decided to include 800 (14 per cent) additional seats for girls across the 23 IITs in 2018. The number rose to 946 (17 per cent) in 2019. The Joint Admission Board allowed individual IITs to fix the female enrolment targets at 20 per cent. 

Engineering in India continues to be a male-dominated field. The introduction of female supernumerary seats in engineering colleges in India has resulted in an increase in the number of females in IITs, which went up to 20 per cent in 2021-22 from nine per cent in 2017, India CSR reported. 

The number of female applicants has increased in the IITs with the introduction of supernumerary seats in engineering colleges in India.  

Only 11% women continue pursuing career in engg 

According to the Society of Women Engineers, women candidates constitute 20 per cent of the total engineering-qualifying graduates. Only 11 per cent of women continue pursuing careers in the engineering field. 

The introduction of female supernumerary seats in the IITs obliterated the difference between male and female students in the top engineering colleges in India. The number of seats was increased for females in IITs instead of reserving from the existing number of seats. The impact of the decision and the increased opportunity reflects in the data from JEE exam and IIT admission trends. 

Engineering colleges in India have come a long way since the 1990s when the ratio of boys and girls enrolment was 10:1. This ratio decreased to 7:1 in the early 2000s, and to 4:1 in the mid and late 2000s. It deteriorated further in 2014 when most of the IITs had anywhere between 5 per cent and 12 per cent of girl population on their campus, the report said. 

IITs in India admitted 995 girls and 9,883 boys, a year before the supernumerary seats were allotted to females. According to reports, 7,259 female students qualified for JEE Advanced in 2017 but only 995 got admitted to IITs, which is just 9 per cent of the total strength. This could be attributed to the location of the IITs and the field of study. 

A total of 6,58,191 undergraduate students enrolled in the 2020-21 academic year, of those 30.2 per cent were female students. Women represented 29.2 per cent of participants in BE/BTech courses in the 2019-20 school year. Mechanical engineering enrolls the highest number of undergraduates, women are exceedingly underrepresented (5.6 per cent) among the graduates. The representation of women is high in architecture (55.7 per cent), electronics engineering (48.7 per cent), and information technology (46.3 per cent) disciplines. 

Number of female students increase In IITs 

Prior to the supernumerary quota, only eight per cent were seeking admission, out of 20 per cent of girls students in the IITs. IIT admissions council decided to include 800 (14 per cent) additional seats for girls across the 23 IITs in 2018. The number rose to 946 (17 per cent) in 2019. The Joint Admission Board (JAB) allowed individual IITs to fix the female enrolment targets at 20 per cent. 

The total strength of female students constituted 20 per cent in 2021 as well as in 2022, where females got admission to 3,310 seats out of 16,635 seats in IITs, prior to 995 in 2017, a year before supernumerary seats were created. 

IIT Bombay admitted 271 female students compared to 100 in 2017. IIT Delhi female enrolments increased to 246 from 90 in 2017. The total number of students admitted to the IITs has increased from 10,988 to 16,296 between 2017 and 2021, while the women population almost tripled from 995 to 2,990.  

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