All-Women-IIT? Do we really need it?
After the talks of new IITs and increasing the number of seats in the existing ones, HRD ministry is mulling over a proposal to setup an all women IIT, at Amravati near Nagpur .
The suggestion to start India’s first all-women IIT at Amravati near Nagpur in Vidarbha had in fact been mooted by Saint Gadgebaba University vice-chancellor Kamal Singh. Patil followed it up when she became the country’s first woman president last July.
Patil, concerned about fewer girl students making it to the IITs, personally talked to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and HRD Minister Arjun Singh about the proposal, which apparently led to the speedy progress in the matter. [source]
The decision is not yet out, but I will be damn surprised to see an all-women IIT.
The basic issue I have with govt.’s approach is their (probable) understanding that girls do not apply to IITs because of boys!
Well, such issues needs to be evaluated with bottoms-up approach, i.e. solve the decreasing female student number in schools/lower education – understand why they are quitting instead of pumping your vote bank.
What’s your opinion?
About the author - Ashish Sinha is a Startup Mentor/Product Strategy Coach, and the founder/chief editor of pluGGd.in.
He has launched/managed couple of products (consumer as well as enterprise) in US and India, and now consults with startups/small businesses on their product/media strategy. He can be reached at: ashish (at) pluGGd.in [+91 98452 06443]
Great now we won’t even get the bacche khuche bandis in the IITs
Firstly, the primary reason this should NOT happen is because of AD’s reason
But that apart, the whole thing is preposterous. IIT is sacred. IIT is holy. Why do people bother making distinctions there, other than the one of meritocracy.
Ashish, I completely agree with you. The Government should worry about increasing the female ration in undergraduate education and it will automatically solve the problem of gender population in the IITs.
What is the rationality in a decision like this that only people at MHRD see and we can’t understand(other than vote bank politics). Our politicians have been consistently notorious for making vacuous arguments. The irony of the situation is: Opposition cannot even raise a question on such decisions lest should it be branded anti-women!!
Whats more interesting is Indian economy seems decently insulated from such dumb decisions and grows at the rate of 9% YoY. Does this mean we can do far better than 9%, if we had a more rational Govt? Whats your expectation? My guess is: 20% growth YoY
-Mahesh
Celebrating Life…
Its soooo stupid. That scandalous lady dont deserve to sit in a position once occupied by Abdhul Kalam and KR Narayanan.
Its a shame on the govt. I don’t understand the rationale for all this..i guess they are trying to divert the attention from imp. matters like rising inflation. nuclear deal…
They should first implement 33% reservation in Parliament to show that they really are serious about “women empowerment”.
That lady is so incredulous to hold that chair.
When did girls got afraid of appearing for JEE due to boys!!! IIT boys especially at the time of jee preparation happen to be the most serious and the most harmless creatures possible to exist.
On top of it how can a general person buy this piece of total crap…
There is some serious malfunction going in the their heads..
I am seeing such a great future for india ahead….
Instead of improving the quality of education and research taking place in existing institutions (including IITs) the government is spending more money creating new IITs. US governemt didn’t go about opening UC Berkley in every State and County of USA neither UK went around opening gazillion Oxfords.
MHRD has gone mad!!!
… at least ruling party is very much afraid of coming back to power in the next term.
… new IITs, NITs given INI status => without improving their faculty, infrastructure, regulatory mechanism.
11 worthy directors of NITs were sacked 3 years ago by this same govt on baseless reasons( they were appointed by BJP when brand NIT came into being – and all of them were exlnt ppl to lead such instts)
… just too many premier instt!!
… goal=> VOTE BANK!!…
… (20 IIT, 40 NIT, + Women IIT/NIT
) Reservation++
This would be really funny if it weren’t so sad.
I have long since given up any hopes that I had of genuine reforms being injected from the topmost layers of our government structure. Our institutions of excellence were created during a narrow window of opportunity that existed perhaps only for a few years following Independence; this window has long since been nailed shut by votebank politics and our “leaders” who would not hesitate to sell their families in order to get more money in their bank accounts.
What about the panacea of private enterprise? Well, notice how the powerful “non-profit education society” lobby has successfully blocked the entry of foreign education providers. In turn, MIT has recently announced plans to open a satellite campus in Vietnam.
Yes. Vietnam > India (insert appropriate operator overloading here).
It’s a crying shame.
So please help me understand…
Problem definition: Not many girls in IIT
Root cause:
Why: Not many girls apply to JEE
Why:
1. The number of girls studying science could be low
2. Girls do not quality into JEE because they dont spend enough on studying for the exam
3. Parents do not promote the girl child to goto IIT
4. Girls do not like engineering
I wont bore you to goto all the 5 whys but lets now see what needs to be done to address the root causes:
1. Promote girls to do science (not really helpful if girls inherently dont want to study science… why force)
2. Promote programs for girls to study for IIT. IIT has similar programs for SC/ ST candidates so same should be done for girls
3. Hard to crack this one s this is more of a social problem
4. Govt can try make engineering attractive to girls
Of all the engineers out there we know that there are not many girls doing engineering as medical courses. Does creating a separate girls IIT help this problem? If I reverse engineer this problem, then this implies that govt is thinking one of the following:
1. Reservation for girls along the line of OBC/ SC/ ST- boy thats is cutting out of the remaining 20% or so “non” reservation left of higher case boys (whatever that means)
2. Females are shy of guys so they do not want to goto “co-ed” colleges – That thinking is so 1960s. This would be a result of 60 year old politicians making decision for younger generation. Is that really helping girls… probably next government decision would be to create a girls only company or saying infosys have girls only departments/ projects
3. … you can add more reasons here
The root cause remains the basic objective of the govt to help the poor of the nation and underprivileged parts of society.. bottom line is how does this help?
Oh God, save India… What a bad thought by govt. Everyone should oppose it, if not it may turn to be a foundation for these things:
IIT/IIM for SC, IIT/IIM for ST, iit for obc, iit for sports category, iit for poor students, iit for nris, iit for foreigners and finally if govt still has some funds left, they continue to run currently existing iits for intelligent students.
Ashish,
“i guess they are trying to divert the attention from imp. matters like rising inflation. nuclear deal”: You hit the nail
I was thinking of this ever since they are planning to intro net in rural. [u wrote abt this]
Listen ppl.. I can understand ur feelings well.. I m too frm IIT (Delhi).
As I see, let the govt. do watever they want, I dont think that ll effect that much.. IITs have always got famous due to good people passing out frm here. Who said, that entry wud stop!! After all they are opening new IITs for non-deserving janta.
Non-deserving population wud pass out of IITs and dissapear in the common crowd similar to what happens to category ppl at present. They cannot harm the IIT’s image, but yes they may encash a bit on the brand name.. So, whats wrong in that.. U may take it as a social welfare work..
And, according to my knowledge, ppl in US n everywhr are well informed abt all these craps taking place in India.. How much time do you think they wud take in categorizing ppl straight away on the basis of their entry category..
This is completely ridiculous..when every one in worlds wanted to have equal rights & co education for both then why any one need separate IITs ?
This is most stupid idea ever seen. To be an IITian there should not be any gender issue. All world knows IITians because of their talent.
And till now I have not come across any girl who is not going to IIT due to boys after clearing entrance exams.
-Prachi
India cannot compete other develope countries due to these internal competition which are made by our politicians to hide there failures