Top institutes to create extra seats for women in 2018

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) would create about 450 supernumerary seats for admission of women students in various B Tech programmes in the coming academic session of 2018-19.

The National Institutes of Technology (NITs) will also follow the suit.

Both the IITs and NITs have to ensure that percentage of total women students reaches at 14 in 2018.

"All IITs will together create 4% supernumerary quota for women students in 2018. The NITs will also follow the suit to meet the target of admitting 14% women students next year," official sources told DH.

The IITs admitted over 11000 students last year. Of them, the percentage of women students came at 10.

"By adding 4% extra seats in 2018, the IITs would be able to achieve the target of admitting 14 % women in 2018,"

These supernumerary seats will be created above and beyond the existing number of approved seats under all categories.

All students will be admitted to the NITs and the IITs on the basis of their performance in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), Main and JEE Advance, respectively. Supernumerary seats, to be created by the premier technical institutes, will also be offered to women students on the basis of their performance in the nationwide test.

Earlier this year, the council of IITs accepted the Government's proposal to create supernumerary seats for women students to bridge the gender gap in the premier technical institutes.

The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry had proposed for creation of extra seats for women students taking note of the severe gender gap in the IITs and NITs. The percentage of women students in the IITs remained at just 8% in 2016.

The Ministry wants both the IITs and NITs to ensure that percentage of women students reached 20% by 2020.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will conduct the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), Main, in pen and paper mode (offline) on April 8, 2018 while the Joint Admission Board (JAB) of the IITs will hold JEE-Advance on May 20 next year.