IIT-Kharagpur will raise the number of female students at its undergraduate level to give girls more scope in the premier institution, IIT-K director Professor Partha Pratim Chakrabarti has said. "It is a fact that women are not getting the same opportunity that a male candidate gets. Even these days, some conservative families refrain from sending daughters to institutions like IIT. We have to break that. We have to give some more scope to women," Chakrabarti told reporters after the Institute's 63rd convocation on the previous day.

Stating that women comprise 9 per cent of the total number of students in at the undergraduate level, the academician said, "We, 3-4 IITs, will together find a method for the promotion of women without reducing the seats and accordingly move the Ministry of Human Resource Development. It will not be reservation, it will be for the promotion of women, giving additional seats without reducing the opportunity for others and by maintaining quality," he said.

"While women comprise less than 10 per cent of the IIT-K undergraduate student force, you have seen that around 40 per cent of award winners in this convocation were girls. This shows that women are more serious and their intelligence is equal. They only need more opportunities," he said. The recipients of this year's gold medals included a number of girls.