More than 10,000 girls have qualified for admission to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) for the first time, an analysis by The Indian Express showed. The rise is being seen as a significant milestone in gender representation in engineering education in India. Data analysed by IE showed that nearly one in four female candidates cleared JEE-Advanced 2026.
According to the data, 10,107 women candidates qualified this year, a sharp rise of nearly 89% from 5,356 qualifiers in 2019. The increase follows the implementation of the supernumerary seats scheme introduced in 2018 to improve female representation in IITs.
While qualifying for JEE-Advanced does not guarantee admission to an IIT, it enables candidates to participate in the counselling process for around 20,000 seats across 23 IITs. Candidates who do not secure an IIT seat remain eligible for admission to other premier engineering institutes, including National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs).
The number of women appearing for the highly competitive entrance examination also rose steadily during the period. From 33,249 female candidates in 2019, the figure increased around 22% to 40,562 in 2026, IE’s analysis showed.
Results of JEE-Advanced 2026 were declared on June 1. Of the 40,562 women who appeared for the exam, 24.9% qualified and made it to the common rank list. Overall, nearly 56,000 candidates qualified in the examination this year.
IITs’ supernumerary seats scheme
Under the supernumerary seats scheme, additional seats were created exclusively for women candidates with the objective of increasing female enrolment in IITs to 20% within five years.
The impact has been visible in the improving success rates. According to IE, only 13.47% of girls who appeared for JEE-Advanced qualified in 2018. That figure has now climbed to nearly 25%.