IIMs ready to make their spaces more inclusive and diverse 

The admission process into any IIM sees the background of a student through a holistic lens, which has propelled them to make their spaces more inclusive and diverse. This has led to a rise in the number of women, non-engineers and others from more inclusive and diverse backgrounds to become a part of the premier institutes.

Early this decade, there was a looming concern over the less percentage of women being admitted into the IIMs. In order to give them equal representation that was consonant with the representation of their male counterparts, the IIMs decided on offering a ‘diversity quotient’.This meant that, in order to make their spaces more inclusive and diverse, the background of a student shall also be given weightage during the personal interview round. This led to a surge in the number of women getting admitted into the IIMs, along with other people who were representative of the inclusive and diverse social and academic backgrounds.

The quest for diversity quotient

As per the data provided by the IIMs, the batch of 2020 will see a higher gender ratio in comparison to the previous years. The director of IIM Ahmedabad, Errol D’Souza remarked that though they are conscious of increasing the percentage of women in the different courses, they will not do it by doling out extra credit points for the same. From last year’s 92, the number of women in this year’s batch came down to 85.

But the main motive behind the diversity quota is to offer a level playing field to women and create a more inclusive and diverse space, so that it addresses the larger social and cultural issues of the country. Debashis Chatterjee who is IIM Kozhikhode’s director said that before the diversity quotient was added, only 8-10% of the students were women. Because of lack of coaching preparedness and the family’s tilted interest towards letting the male child pursue higher studies, the number of women who applied for CAT was relatively low. However, Mister Chatterjee said that this changed drastically the year when the 'diversity quotient' was introduced, which saw a record of more than 50% females that year.

Different trajectories and assessments

Different people have different journeys. A person is assessed, during his interview round, keeping in mind the socio-economic trajectories s/he has walked on. There are a larger number of Corporates and Companies that want a diverse and inclusive, gender-balanced work environment. However, the number of women in long-duration courses and certificate programmes has declined. For the year’s PGP courses, IIM Bangalore saw a rise in women enrollment from 28.13% in 2019 to 37.41% in 2020. 

The director of IIM Calcutta Anju Seth believes that an inclusive and diverse space is indicative of the ‘core values’ of any institute. In the present batch of 2020, IIM Calcutta has included females who constitute 35% of the batch, non-engineers who make up 20% and there are 60% students who have an existing work experience. She added that the institute is continually trying to accommodate additional dimensions to the inclusive and diverse space, while also giving a leg up to a smooth learning process for all. 

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