what is female only option in jossa councelling

Hi

Out of the top 18 students in JEE main 2021,16 were men. only two were women and they both were 1st rank. In the history of JEE mains this was a first. According to Several reports by IITs , academicians there is a huge gender gap for females opting for STEM in school.

Even in the recently released JEE advanced results

35410 were male whereas

6452 were female. Even the female topper kavya chopra is ranked 98 in common rank list. That means Among the top 100 only one is female. she was also the topper in JEE mains.

Now Female-Only (P) seats are meant for females that are specifically created for improving gender ratio.Thus any Female- Only seats available to non- females is not possible by principle.

Creation and allocation of seats for female candidates is fundamentally different from reservation of seats for female candidates AND should NOT be mistaken for any kind of reservation for female.

Thus Josaa business rules 2021 states that

"The Ministry of Education

Government of India, has taken a decision to improve the gender

balance in the undergraduate programs at IITs, NITs, IIEST Shibpur and some of the IIITs to at least 20% by 2020-21 by creating supernumerary

seats specifically for females. In accordance with the directions of the Ministry of Education, Government of India,supernumerary seats will

thus be created and offered to female candidates of Indian nationality only , for improving the gender balance in the undergraduate programs of

all IITs and NITs, IIEST and some of the IIITs in Joint Seat Allocation process for 2021-22. The following rules will be followed while allocating supernumerary seats for females

There will be two seat pools for P, namely,

Gender-Neutral (P) and

Female-Only (P).

The rules also states that

Every IIT must have at least 20% females altogether in its UG

program

Non-female candidates will be eligible only for seats from

Gender-Neutral (P) pool. Female candidates are eligible for both the pools.

However, a female candidate first competes for a seat from Female-Only (P) pool . Only after she fails to get a seat from this

pool she will compete for a seat from Gender-Neutral.

Since a female candidate have a chance in both gender neutral pool and female only pool

It may appear that female

candidates can reduce the chances of non-female candidates who are eligible for only Gender-Neutral pool. But the key point to be noted is

that a female candidate will compete for a seat in Gender-Neutral pool only after she fails to get a seat from Female-Only pool. As a result, it is

guaranteed that at least one of the following properties will hold.

1. All seats of a Program-Section of Gender-Neutral pool are occupied by non-female candidates only.

2. The allocation of all the seats of a Program-Section of Gender-Neutral pool and its Female-Only counterpart combined is done purely based on merit without any gender bias/preference.

For IITs, Undergraduate programs altogether in an institute will have at

least 20% females for academic session 2021-22. For NITs, IIEST Shibpur and some of IIITs, individual undergraduate

program will have at least 20% females for academic session 2021-22.

Under no circumstance a female candidate will be denied a seat in an academic program while allocating that seat to a non-female candidate

with (a) worse rank than her, and, (b) satisfying the same eligibility criteria.

Order of category and gender: While allocating a seat, josaa first consider the category and then the gender.

For example, consider an OBC-NCL female candidate with a valid GEN rank. Suppose she is aspirant of a seat in an academic program P.

She will be first considered for a seat from the Female-Only pool of OPEN seats for program P followed by

Gender- Neutral pool of OPEN seats for program P.

Thereafter, she will be

considered for a seat from Female-Only pool of OBC-NCL seats for program P

followed by Gender-Neutral pool of OBC-NCL seats for

program P.

The justification for the above order is the following: The

candidate is eligible for OPEN seats. So attempts must be made to allocate her a OPEN seat before her own category"

Hope this answers your query!

All the best!