Officials believe that female students not opting for engineering courses because of fewer streams
Female students constitute only 26 per cent of total students in engineering colleges across India, public and private colleges put together. While this number has been at a constant for the last two years, there is a decline in the numbers over the last four year.
A day after the Joint Admission Board of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) approved supernumerary quota for women students, DNA analysed gender-wise enrollment of women in engineering colleges in the country over the last four years.
The analysis shows that women’s participation in engineering colleges has been on a constant decline. Women students made a mere 26 per cent of the overall engineering students in the country in 2015-16 and 2014-15. The number was slightly better in 2013-14 at 27 per cent. While in 2012-13, the percentage was 34 per cent, it has constantly declined over the last four years.
The data has been sourced from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which has thousands of public and private engineering institutions under it.
The situation in IITs, which are around 19 in number is also similar. As per some surveys in the past, the number of women students in IITs has been around 26-24 per cent. This is the reason that government has decided to crate a supernumerary quota in these institutions for women.
Explaining how this quota will work, a senior HRD Ministry official said, “Only if the enrolment of women to a course is low, will the supernumerary quota come in place. This is to balance the gender ratio in courses.”
Officials believe that the low number of women students in engineering courses is because of the lesser availability of streams. Most of the science students either stick to conventional streams like computers or electronics while pursuing engineering or go for a career in medicine.
“Female students opting for engineering stream go to computer and electrical engineering. There are few female students who pursue streams like civil and mechanical, because of the job profile that comes along with it. It would be more challenging for them to work on construction sites,” said a senior official at AICTE.
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The data has been sourced from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which has thousands of public and private engineering institutions under it.
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