(This story originally appeared in on Apr 29, 2017)

MUMBAI: The IITs will soon have a quota for women students. The IIT Council, which met in Mumbai on Friday, discussed the possibility of raising the number of women students from the current annual 8-9% to 20% by 2020. "It has been decided to give admission to more girls," said HRD minister Prakash Javadekar.Sources said that there would be additional seats set aside coursewise, thus allowing more girls to join the IITs. For instance, if there are 60 spots in IIT-Bombay's computer science programme, there will be an addition of one or two seats just for girls.Ashok Misra, chairman of the standing committee of IIT Council, said, "Diversity is essential. We know that other engineering colleges have about 40-50% girls on their campuses, not the IITs though. We know that the girls who clear our JEE (Advanced) are capable and we would like them to join the IITs."The elite engineering colleges are currently maledominated, with only about 800 of the 4,500 girls who crack the JEE (advanced) every year joining the IITs.The IIT Council also discussed ways to attract more foreign students and raised the issue of increasing the fee for postgraduate students. "The IITs spend Rs 1.24 lakh per annum per students, but charge Rs 20,000 a year from each student. However, a decision to that effect is still pending," a source said. It was also decided that JEE and the GATE entrance exams will be pushed to a larger number of international countries.To address the issue of suicide and stress on campus, a presentation by IIT Kharagpur director prompted the Council to clear the decks of setting up a wellness centre on each campus. Measures such as compulsory induction programmes that will acclimatize students to life at IITs and help them cope with stress were detailed.