Over the years there has been a substantial increase in female enrollments in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematic)courses in India. The information was shared by the Minister of State for Education, Dr Subhas Sarkar in a written reply in the Lok Sabha recently. The increase in the female enrollments was a result of various initiatives introduced by the government, the minister noted.
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) had launched the Pragati Scholarship and TechSaksham Program (TSP) for women in the year 2014 to award scholarship to meritorious girl students. The aim of the scholarship was to encourage the students to pursue higher education.
The council is awarding 10,000 scholarships through the Pragati initiative to the girls entering in the technical education.
The TechSaksham Program was launched with an aim to use experiential learning in order to develop employability skills amongst underserved female students pursuing higher education.
Besides this, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have been mandated to introduce supernumerary seats in the undergraduate program to improve female enrolments in these courses. As a result of the initiative, the female enrolments were increased from 8 per cent in 2018-19 to 20 per cent in 2020-21.
As per All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), the female enrolment in STEM courses has increased from 38.4 per cent in 2014-15 to 42.6 per cent in 2021-22 (Provisional).
As per World Bank Gender Data accessed in 2023, female share of graduates from STEM as percentage of tertiary education in India (2018) is 42.7%, in US (2016) is 34%, in UK (2016) is 38.1%, in Australia (2017) is 32.1% and in Germany (2017) is 27.6%.