A total of 11,942 students have taken admission to Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) after the seventh round of counselling.
After the final round across 23 IITs, a total of 11942 students—10,101 male and 1841 female students have taken admission, a total of 11942 students have been admitted across IITs. While 10101 of them are male students, 1841 women candidates have marked entry in the largely male bastion.
- 10,101 male students.
- 1841 female students.
- 779 supernumerary seats were earmarked for for women candidates.
- The IITs are aiming at a 20% representation of women by 2020.
The IITs, nudged by the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry, had decided on ensuring 14% women candidates at the premier engineering institutes in a bid to bring greater gender balance and diversity. 2018, however, has seen a better show with 16% women in the IITs. The IITs are aiming at a 20% representation of women by 2020, pushing it up incrementally every year.
779 supernumerary seats were earmarked for for women candidates at IITs this year with 113 seats set aside at IIT Kharagpur, 95 seats at 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 rule book followed has been to first fill the women quota of seats and then move to gender neutral pool if a woman candidate does not make it in the former. While there is a welcome increase at 16% this year, the finer details leave much to desire with less than 15 girls ranking in top 500. The larger aim is to ensure that women candidates are encouraged across various courses at the IITs.
