New Delhi, April 28: An apex decision making body for 23 IITs today approved a proposal to create additional 12 per cent exclusive seats for girls in BTech courses by 2020, thereby increasing their representation to about 20 per cent.

The IIT Council, headed by HRD minister Prakash Javadekar, decided at a meeting held in IIT Bombay to clear the proposal of creating super-numeri seats for women in view of the percentage of girl students remaining below 10.

Creation of additional seats will start from next year (see chart). Every year, four per cent seats would be added till 2020. Since eight per cent of students get admission under general merit category, the 12 per cent exclusive seats is likely to increase their representation to 20 per cent, explained an IIT director.

The IITs have remained largely male bastions over the years. The admission data in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced report for 2015 shows 9,974 candidates were offered admission into BTech including 900 girls. Their number in 2016 remained around 900 too. In 2014, girls constituted eight per cent of total students.

While 2.2 lakh top scorers of JEE-Main examination appear the JEE-Advanced, the exclusive test conducted by IITs for admission into their BTech courses, about 25,000 students qualify, including 3,000 to 4000 female candidates.

There are about 10,000 BTech seats in all the IITs. The additional seats will take the total seats in IITs to over 11,000.

An IIT director said that nearly two-thirds of female students being offered seats do not prefer to take admission because of several factors like distance from their hometown and safety. Among male students, those rejecting admission are about one third of those getting an offer.

"Girl students do not prefer to join IITs mainly due to distance and safety concerns. But now such students are more likely to get admission in the preferred IIT in nearby locations because of the exclusive seats to be created in each IIT," the director said.

Cut-off mark would not be compromised while admitting students under the super-numeri seats, he said. At present, the IITs offer seats in merit order. The same procedure will continue even after creation of super-numeri seats. Once all the existing seats are offered, the exclusive seats would be offered to female students.

A joint admission board comprising IIT directors had mooted the proposal.

Unlike IITs, the 31 National Institutes of Technology (NITs) which are seen as second-rung engineering institutions have a better rate of girls' representation of 15 per cent.

The council also decided to hold additional two-rounds of joint counselling with NITs this year to ensure no seats remained vacant. IITs and NITs normally hold five to six rounds of counselling under which each eligible student is offered a seat in one institute.

The council also decided that all IITs would start an induction programme for newly admitted students.

During the two-week programme, the students would get to know each other and hear motivational talks to enhance their confidence.