Strength of Girl Students Increases by Threefold at IIM Rohtak in 2017

IIM Rohtak has achieved some success in its attempt to maintain gender diversity across the various programmes offered by it. The Institute has reported that there has been a threefold increase in the number of girl students enrolled in the post-graduate management courses in 2017 as compared to 2016.

According to reports, the number of girl students at IIM Rohtak increased as the number of seats were also increased by 70%. The institute still has to go a long way in order to improve the gender ratio across its programmes.

IIM Rohtak started its eighth batch (2017-19) recently with its three-day induction programme that was concluded on Sunday, July 2, 2017. The batch comprised 26 girls and 236 boys that were inducted during the commencement of the academic session. This makes the girls-boys ratio at IIM Rohtak to be 1:10.

The Institute has been working in order to improve the number of girls enrolled in PG management courses. In 2016, only 9 girls were enrolled in a batch of 153 students. Prof Dheeraj Sharma, Director of IIM Rohtak, said that they ran social media campaigns and declared merit-cum-scholarships in the second year of management courses for girl students.

The first meet and greet session was also organised by the Institute and candidates were given an opportunity to interact with the faculty members, the Director added.

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The institute had a 1:1 gender ratio for the 2013-15 batch that is almost impossible to achieve. The fall in number of girl students enrolled at IIM Rohtak is due to the increase in crime rate and poor safety for women in the state. Violent riots and caste-based disturbances have also been one of the reasons why the number of girls enrolled in the Institute have reduced.

Refuting the above reasons, Prof Sharma said that the number of girls enrolling for post-graduation in India is generally less as compared to boys in India. He also added that IIM Rohtak is a new institute, therefore, many of the girls prefer enrolling at old IIMs.

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The eighth batch of IIM Rohtak has also improved in terms of academic diversity. There has been a 33% increase in the number of students coming from non-engineering backgrounds.