IIT JEE Advanced 2022: Steady rise in female students qualifying the engineering entrance test

In 2014, about 3,000 women cracked the IIT entrance test and made up 11% of the qualified candidates that year. In 2021, this number rose to 6,400 girls and 15.4% of the qualified pool

Women make up 31% of the student strength across all engineering schools that applied for ranking under NIRF. (File image)

3 min readNew Delhi ISep 11, 2022 09:26 AM IST First published on: Aug 26, 2022 at 09:35 AM IST

— Tushar Verma

The number of women cracking JEE-Advanced — the gateway exam for admission to 23 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) — has steadily risen from 2014 to 2021, an analysis of exam statistics by The Indian Express has shown.

B.Tech programmes in India have traditionally been a male bastion. The latest National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF) report released by the Education Ministry last month shows that 69% of enrolment in engineering colleges are of men. Women make up 31% of the student strength across all engineering schools that applied for ranking under NIRF.

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The IITs are no exception to this trend. However, women are slowly but surely making their presence felt on the IIT campuses. An analysis of the JEE-Advanced data points to the shift taking place.

In 2014, about 3,000 women qualified JEE-Advanced and were eligible for admission to the IITs. They made up 11% of the pool of qualified candidates that year. In 2021, roughly 6,400 girls cracked the exam, making up 15.4% of the total number of qualified candidates.

The above trend is in line with the increasing number of women taking JEE-Advanced, one of the toughest competitive exams in the country. Women comprised 17.90% of all the students who took JEE-Advanced in 2014 and 22.83% in 2021.

Professor V Ramgopal Rao, former director of IIT-Delhi, attributes the uptick in women participation in JEE-Advanced to the social programmes undertaken by the IITs in collaboration with the government. For instance, four years ago, the IITs introduced supernumerary seats reserved for women. “The hope is that women who make it to IITs will act as role models for other girls. More women are taking JEE exams and are beginning to do well which is a good sign,” he said.

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Rao added that he expects more and more women to take up JEE in future. “Since the ratio of boys and girls are almost similar in Classes 11 and 12, that ratio should carry forward for JEE-Advanced as well.”

A former IIT-JEE chairman, who did not wish to be identified, said their data shows a number of meritorious girls qualify JEE-Advanced but they do not join IITs due to various social reasons.

“… If the number of girls in IITs are increased to 20 per cent, they will automatically start forming role models for other students to take away the misgivings about the ideas like Mechanical Engineering is not for girls, or opting technical institutions closer to home and not taking the IIT experience,” he said.

The former chairman also said several women students of IITs have addressed parents of girls about the advantages and multidisciplinary education at the premier institutions, and how the landscape of engineering education has changed in favour of women during various orientation programmes organised routinely