After IITs, 31 National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur (IIEST) will have a Supernumerary Quota For Women from next academic session 2018-19. The move is likely to provide equitable access to girls in the top-ranked central technical institutes.
The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has sent a directive to all 31 NITs and the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST), Shibpur to increase the participation of female candidates in these central technical institutes through supernumerary quota for women.
According to a senior MHRD official, the seats for male students will not be reduced, and the supernumerary seats will be created only if the percentage of girl students falls below 14% of its total seats in any NIT. This percentage will gradually move in a phased manner to maximum 20% in 2024. We can expect good chance for female candidates to get admitted in the technical institutes across the country from the next academic year on 2018-19.
According to the order, statutory reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and for Physically Handicapped (PH) categories will be applicable in the supernumerary seats in the same manner as for the sanctioned seats.
With the latest supernumerary quota for women in NITs and IIEST, at least another 300 girl students are expected to get a seat. According to sources, in 2017-18 only 14% female candidates took admission in the 31 NITs as compared to 22% last year. This year, out of 17,061 total students, 2,440 female students were admitted in NITs. During this year admissions, (14) NITs out of the (31) including the well-established ones at Suratkal, Allahabad and Patna saw the percentage of girl student admissions plummeting below 14%.
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In order to address the decline of women candidates in the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the Joint Admission Board (JAB) had set up a panel last year, under the chairmanship of Professor Timothy Gonsalves to find ways to rectify the situation in the institutes.
Concerned over the fall in the number of girl students getting admission at the premier engineering institutions of the country, the Indian Institutes of Technology have decided to admit more women from the 2018 academic session. The decision was taken at the Joint Admission Board (JAB) of the IITs. The board approved a supernumerary quota in IITs (over and above the actual intake) for girls in a phased manner, reaching up to 20% over a maximum of eight years.
In IITs also, The supernumerary quota for girls student will start at 14% from 2018, 4% more seats will be reserved for women candidates which means a total of 1,540 girls are likely to take admission compared to 1,100 this year. There will be an increase of 440 seats for women candidates from next year admission. HRD Officials, however, said the exact number could vary and will be decided on a year to year basis.
“The idea is to restore a gender balance among premier engineering colleges as they have been highly skewed against the girls. Entrance exams are so tough that one cannot crack it without rigorous coaching. Generally, girls are not sent to coaching centres which are in far-flung areas such as Kota and Hyderabad,” MHRD officials were quoted as saying by ET.
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The admission to NITs & IIEST is on JEE Main entrance exam scores and common counselling process is conducted through JoSAA (Joint Seat Allocation Authority). The registrations for JEE Main 2018 were 11,48,000 with a drop of 50,989 from the last year. In 2017, the total number of registrations were 11,98,989 for both Paper 1 & Paper 2. Out of the total registrations, 8,62,526 were male candidates, 3,36,460 were female candidates and 3 were transgenders.
With the creation of more seats for women in technical institutes and promotion of equality on the higher education front, the number of female candidate registrations may increase in the upcoming years and we can expect more girls to get into top engineering colleges.
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