Getting into the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) is a dream for millions of students. Each year, lakhs of candidates appear for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) in hopes of gaining admission to one of the 23 IITs. To make this goal more attainable for students from reserved categories, IITs across the country are now offering fee concessions and various relaxations.The motive behind this initiative is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all.
“In the JEE-based admissions, fee remissions and waivers are provided right from the application stage. Students belonging to the SC, ST, and PwD (persons with disabilities) categories only need to pay half the examination fee. Furthermore, cut-offs are relaxed to support a greater number of admissions for SC, ST, PwD, and OBC categories,” said IIT Madras Director V. Kamakoti, as reported by PTI.
This year, the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras conducted the JEE-Advanced, which saw approximately 1.8 lakh students participate. Out of these, around 20,000 to 25,000 students achieve their dream of entering an IIT. To promote inclusivity, IITs have implemented measures for students from reserved categories. “To further enable a greater number of students to benefit from the high quality of education that the IITs offer, SC and ST students who secure marks below the relaxed selection cut-off are given special training through a preparatory course, allowing them to directly join the IITs upon completion of the course,” Kamakoti stated, as quoted by PTI.
Starting in 2024, the JEE (Advanced) team introduced “Citizen Service Centres” nationwide to assist candidates, particularly those from rural areas, in completing their applications and paying fees through the online portal. This initiative aims to make the process more accessible and convenient for students in remote locations. “A multi-lingual call centre was also established to address candidates’ queries. A reconciliation day after the fee payment deadline was introduced this year to handle cases (of candidates who made at least one payment attempt) that faced last-minute technical issues,” Kamakoti added, as reported by PTI.
During the admission process, all eligible candidates must pay a seat acceptance fee to demonstrate their commitment to securing a seat. SC, ST, and PwD students are required to pay only 50% of the fee compared to regular candidates. Kamakoti noted that in the past, without this fee, many students blocked seats but failed to attend classes, leaving numerous seats vacant.
“Since the seats reserved for SC and ST can only be allocated to candidates from those categories, a vacant SC or ST seat results in denying another deserving candidate from a reserved category the opportunity to attend IIT,” Kamakoti explained, as reported by PTI.
He further stated that if a student’s parental income is less than Rs 1 lakh, all 23 IITs will waive the full tuition fee, regardless of category. Additionally, full tuition waivers are provided to students from SC, ST, and PwD categories. Moreover, students from Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) with parental incomes between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 5 lakh have two-thirds of their tuition fee waived.
(With inputs from PTI)
