Steps taken by the Government to promote women participation in STEM Courses
To promote female students to pursue higher education and research, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has introduced Pragati Scholarship and TechSaksham Program (TSP) for women. The Pragati Scholarship was started in the year 2014 to award scholarship to meritorious girl students to encourage them to pursue higher education. AICTE is awarding 10000 scholarships (Pragati) to the girls entering in the technical education. TechSaksham Program is a top-up program that uses experiential learning to develop employability skills amongst underserved female students pursuing higher education.
With a view to improve female enrolment in the Undergraduate Programmes in Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), supernumerary seats were created which increased the female enrolment from 8% in 2018-19 to 20% in 2020-21. As per All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), the Female Enrolment in STEM Courses has increased from 38.4% in 2014-15 to 42.6% 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%.
The information was given by the Minister of State for Education, Dr. Subhas Sarkar in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.
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