IIT Women’s Intake Has Risen Since 2018: How Much Did Supernumerary Seats Contribute?

Last Updated:October 06, 2026, 3:42 PM IST

The Education Ministry’s annual report records female BTech enrolment at 15.34% in 2018, 18% in 2019, 19.9% in 2020, 19.72% in 2021, 20.06% in 2022, and 19.7% in 2023.

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The share of women in IIT undergraduate engineering programmes has increased significantly since the introduction of female supernumerary seats in 2018, but the growth has slowed in recent years, with female representation remaining close to 20%, according to government and JEE Advanced data.

In 2018, women accounted for 15.34% of B.Tech enrolment in IITs, according to the Ministry of Education’s Annual Report 2024-25. The government had introduced supernumerary seats for women to improve gender balance in IITs without reducing the number of seats available to other candidates.

The policy was announced in 2018 alongside the creation of 800 supernumerary seats specifically for female candidates. The Ministry of Education said the move was aimed at improving gender balance in the IITs.

The government had set targets to increase female enrolment from around 8% to 14% in 2018-19, 17% in 2019-20 and 20% in 2020-21 through the creation of supernumerary seats. The Ministry of Education’s annual report records female B.Tech enrolment at 15.34% in 2018, 18% in 2019, 19.9% in 2020, 19.72% in 2021, 20.06% in 2022, 19.7% in 2023 and 19.75% in 2024.

The 2025 figure is based on JEE Advanced/JIC seat-allotment data rather than the Ministry of Education’s 2024-25 annual-report enrolment series. In 2025, as many as 3,664 women were allotted IIT seats out of 18,188 total allotments, accounting for 20.15%.

The number of supernumerary seats also increased as the policy was implemented. According to a Ministry of Education release, 835 supernumerary seats were created in IITs in 2018-19 and 1,122 in 2019-20.

The data suggests therefore suggests that female supernumerary seats did make a significant difference to women’s representation in IITs. Female enrolment rose from 15.34% in 2018 to around 20% within a few years of the policy being introduced, helping IITs move substantially closer to the government’s gender-balance target.

But the numbers also show the limits of the intervention. Female representation has remained close to 20% since 2020, with only marginal changes in the years that followed. This suggests that while additional seats helped increase the share of women entering IITs, the policy alone has not been enough to close the gender gap.

The next challenge, therefore, may lie beyond the number of seats available to women — in the larger pipeline of who chooses engineering, appears for JEE Advanced, qualifies, secures higher ranks and ultimately opts for IITs and different engineering branches.

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What was the purpose of introducing female supernumerary seats in IITs?

The government introduced female supernumerary seats in 2018 to improve gender balance in undergraduate engineering programmes without reducing the number of seats available to other candidates.

How did female enrolment in IIT B.Tech programmes change after 2018?

Female B.Tech enrolment rose from 15.34% in 2018 to 18% in 2019 and 19.9% in 2020, remaining close to 20% in the following years.

How many female candidates qualified for IIT admission in JEE Advanced 2026?

In JEE Advanced 2026, a record 10,107 female candidates qualified for IIT admission out of 40,562 who appeared, marking a significant milestone for women in STEM education.

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