KOLKATA: The human resource development (HRD) ministry has directed the Indian Institutes of Technology to prepare separate merit lists for girls from the 2018-2019 academic session to ensure the number of female students, on each IIT campus, is 14 per cent.The "separate vertical" for girls will be published after IIT authorities see the percentage of girls who have got admission through the common merit list. So, if a specific IIT's common merit list has 6 per cent girl students, that IIT will have to come up with an extra girls-only merit list to ensure their percentage on the campus goes up to 14 per cent.The ministry has specified that the number of girls to be admitted — to achieve the figure of 14 per cent — will be "supernumerary"; the number of boys to be admitted cannot go down from the 2017 number.The recent circular from the ministry to the IITs follows consultations with the law ministry but has already drawn protests against "the introduction of gender reservation in IIT without calling it by that name". The HRD ministry's directive is part of a long-term plan to increase the female representation on IIT campuses to 20 per cent of the total number of students by 2026."The MHRD instruction, asking for a separate merit list for girls, actually introduces reservation for girls without calling it that," a senior IIT official said. The matter was placed before the Joint Admission Board (the highest decision-making body of the IITs) on January 7.Many officials felt that the second girls-only merit list — to take their representation to 14 per cent — may mean less meritorious students gaining admission at the expense of boys who have done better. "This will also put more pressure on IITs, who will now have to arrange for more bridge-course or remedial classes for students getting through to IITs just because we want a pre-determined percentage of girls on the campus," an IIT teacher said.All 23 IITs (including the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad) will now have to increase the number of seats. The total number of admissions across IITs in 2018 will be 11,509, up from 10,988 (which TOI reported on November 25). All existing reservations would apply proportionately for the extra seats, officials have told TOI. But the specific number of extra students that each IIT will have to accommodate will depend on the number of boys each campus admitted in 2017.IIT-Kharagpur, for instance, will need to increase the number of seats by 80, which will take the number of total admissions to 1,421; the number of girls who need to be admitted to take their share to 14 per cent will be 199.