BHUBANESWAR: Future engineers can now rest easy in the knowledge that theirs is a stream striving towards equality. With an aim to reduce the gender gap in engineering education, and to provide equity of access to female students in the Indian Institutes of Technology, IIT Bhubaneswar (IITBBS) will add 22 seats for women in different BTech courses from the coming 2018-19 academic session With these additional seats, the total seat count for BTech courses will increase from 350 to 372 in the Bhubaneswar IIT."We were very worried about the very few number of female students joining the IITs, and are delighted that the Human Resources Development ministry has decided to provide sanction for an additional 22 seats for women candidates in this IIT this year," said R V Raja Kumar, director of IIT Bhubaneswar.At present, women candidates comprise eight per cent of the total student strength in the IIT at the state capital. With this countrywide move, the central government aims to increase the percentage of women students to 14 per cent in every IIT in the country at present and up to 20 per cent by 2026. To increase the strength of women students to 14 per cent in IIT Bhubaneswar, a six per cent increase will be affected.The selection of candidates for these 22 seats will be done through JEE. The women candidates will be admitted on a rankwise basis after the original 350 seats are filled. "This is not a reservation for women because by adding these supernumerary seats the share of boys will not be affected. This is to attract more women to the IITs," Raja Kumar said.However, the present reservation provisions for scheduled castes (SC), scheduled tribes (ST) and other backward classes (OBC) will be applied for the 22 additional seats. There is no reservation for women candidates for admission into IITs."There are so many reasons for which not many girls consider joining the IITs even though they are equally good in studies. The reasons are more social than anything else. Among the existing IIT students, girls perform really well," said Raja Kumar.Women's rights activist Namrata Chadha who welcomed the move citing that in many sections of the society, girls are seldom prioritised when it comes to education. "While it is normal for boys to be sent to coaching centres, parents think twice for girls. This is the reason why despite outshining boys in boards, not many girls qualify for the IITs," said Chadha.

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