Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Sambalpur does not have a single girl student enrolled for the 4th batch at the institute. The authorities of IIM Sambalpur have decided to take initiatives to improve the gender balance at the institute and encourage them to take admission at the institute.
Mahadeo Prasad Jaiswal, Director, IIM-Sambalpur said the HRD Ministry has increased the number of intake from 60 to 120 this academic year. As per the records, 108 students have enrolled taken admission in the institute this year while the 12 seats which are reserved for students from backward groups are still vacant. He said that it is unfortunate for the institute to not have even a single girl student this year. This is because most of the students who take admission in IIM are boys from engineering backgrounds and the girls are usually from non-engineering backgrounds. This makes it relatively easier for the male students to crack the entrance test as compared to girl students.
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To increase the enrollment of girl students, the institute has decided to relax the cut-off marks. This will help increase the number of girl students in the institute from next academic year.
As per the statistics, the female student population of the country is 48.5% of which 45% are girl students who have just passed class 12th. 28% of the girl students are pursuing engineering programmes and out of that only 8-10% have enrolled in IITs for the B.Tech programmes.
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Last year, 11 girl students had taken admission at IIM Sambalpur while the first batch had nine girl students.