Girl Power in IIT: Number of Female IIT students Triples in a Decade

The Number of Girl Students Increased in JEE Advanced Exam, Competition Increased

Engineering education, which was once meant only for boys, is now being challenged by girls as well. The number of girls taking admission in the country’s most prestigious engineering institutes, IITs, is constantly increasing. The number of girls appearing for the JEE-Advanced exam and taking admission in IITs is increasing year after year.

This is proved by the fact that in the last 9 years, the number of girls taking admission in IITs has increased almost 3 times. This situation has changed after the efforts made by the Central Government to increase the inclination of girls towards engineering education in the country.

The Central Government announced the female pool quota to encourage the admission of girls from the year 2018. This year, 14 percent of the seats were filled by female students through the female pool quota. While in the year 2019, this quota was increased to 17 percent and the female pool quota was made 20 percent female pool in 2020 quota.

Due to this continuously increasing effort, the number of girls taking admission in IIT has almost quadrupled in the last 9 years.

According to the data released by IIT, only 847 girl students took admission in the year 2016. In the year 2017, 995 girl students took admission.

In the year 2018, 1852 girl students took admission including supernumerary seats, 2432 in the year 2019, 3197 in the year 2020, 3228 in the year 2021, 3310 in the year 2022, 3411 girl students took admission in IIT in the year 2023.

From 27778 Girl Students in 2016 to 41020 in 2024

If we look at the figures of the past years, the number of female students in IIT was 27778 in the year 2016 and 29872 in 2017. While in 2018, due to 14 percent female pool quota, the number increased to 31021, in 2019, due to 17 percent female pool, the number increased to 33249 and in the year 2020, 32851, in the year 2021, 32285 in the year 2021, 33608 in the year 2022 and 40645 in the year 2023 and in the year 2024, the highest ever 41020 students appeared in the examination.

This increasing number of students shows their increasing inclination towards IIT. On the other hand, if we look at the difference in the status of students qualifying for admission, it has increased from 4570 in 2016 to 7964 in 2024.

Why are the Numbers of Female Students Increasing

The government started giving admission to girls on supernumerary seats to increase the number of girls for admission in IIT and to balance the ratio of the number of boys and girls in IIT.

This made it easier for girls with lower ranks to get admission in IIT. Seeing this situation, the inclination of girls towards IIT studies increased. Now the situation has come to such a point that the competition for each seat in the female pool quota is becoming similar to that of boys after getting the option of supernumerary female pool seats.

This year the cutoff for admission of boys in IIT Mumbai CS in the open category was 68 All India Rank, while for girls the cutoff from the female pool quota was up to All India Rank 421.

These are also the Reasons

Apart from field work, office work is also increasing in engineering education. In this, office work is becoming more common in design, creation and execution. Earlier, there was a lot of demand for field work in core branches like civil, mechanical, electrical, electronics, mining, and one had to do duty at construction sites.

Due to this, girls used to avoid making a career in this field. Now many such courses related to data science, computer science, AI are coming which are proving useful for the girls along with a good career in a safe environment. That is why the inclination of girls towards engineering education is continuously increasing.

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