Bihar reserves 33% seats for girls in medical and engineering colleges

Patna: The Bihar government has announced reservation of 33 per cent seats for girls in Medical and Engineering colleges across the state in a bid to encourage girls towards higher and technical education.

The state government announced its plan after holding a meeting with officials from science and technology and health departments in the state. The government said its prime objective is to ensure that girls from the state don’t have to go to other states to pursue medical and engineering courses.

“The reservation of 33 per cent seats will lead to an increase in the number of girls in all technical and medical institutes,” said chief minister Nitish Kumar, holding a meeting through video-conferencing. The chief minister said the government’s decision would promote more girls to turn towards higher and technical education.

As per the report, currently there are around 30 per cent girls in medical colleges but their representation in engineering colleges is only about 15 per cent. The government now wants to encourage girls towards technical education also.

At present, the state has a total of 38 government-run and 17 private engineering colleges in Bihar. The state has 10 government and six private medical colleges. According to officials, there are 1,330 seats in medical colleges and 9215 seats in engineering colleges running across the state.

The Bihar government has initiated a number of steps to give representation to women in various sectors, from job to politics. Earlier this year, the government ordered reserving top 35 per cent posts in government departments for women in order to boost women empowerment. Although women have been granted 35 per cent reservation in government jobs, the number of women holding top posts are very few. The new arrangement is scheduled to change the whole scenario.

The Bihar government has already granted 50 per cent reservation to women in local bodies’ polls and appointment in teaching jobs, apart from 35 per cent reservation in police jobs. The government has also announced to grant 35 per cent reservation to women in allotment of Public Distribution System (PDS) shops. As per an official report, there are around 55,000 PDS shops in Bihar which means more than 19,000 will go to women. The government says all these efforts would empower women.