NEW DELHI: At least five Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are considering a fee waiver for women students to improve the gender diversity ratio at the country’s premier engineering schools. IIT Mandi took the lead earlier this week by approving a fee waiver along with a monthly scholarship of Rs 1,000 for all women students starting this semester.This will cover existing students as well, provided they pass the semester.“Almost all our existing 30 women students in the B. Tech programme qualify for the fee waiver and scholarship this year, starting from this semester,” said IIT Mandi director Timothy A Gonsalves . As in past years, not all will join, the IITs expect.The schools in Delhi, Varanasi, Mumbai and Ropar are also in favour of fee exemptions for women students. Das added that improving diversity is an urgent task.IIT Kharagpur professor Sudeshna Sarkar, who monitors diversity initiatives at the school, also agreed that “some kind of waiver” for women students would boost numbers.

Source: Economic Times June 16, 2017 19:07 UTC