The number of women qualifying for JEE Advanced crossed the 10,000 mark in 2026, the first such instance in six years, according to the official report released by the Joint Implementation Committee.
The report, prepared by IIT Roorkee, which conducted this year’s examination, said the qualification rate among registered female candidates increased to 23.4 per cent in 2026, compared with 21.7 per cent in 2025.
Of the 43,112 women who registered for the examination, 40,562 appeared in both papers and 10,107 qualified. This means nearly one in four registered women candidates cleared the examination.
A total of 3,814 female-only seats, including supernumerary seats, were allotted this year. Another 37 women secured seats through the gender-neutral pool.
The examination also saw an increase in qualifiers from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe categories. SC qualifiers rose to 15,856 from 12,499 last year, while ST qualifiers increased to 6,379 from 5,008.
In the general category, qualifiers declined marginally to 15,883 from 16,154 in 2025. EWS qualifiers increased slightly to 6,377, while OBC-NCL qualifiers fell to 12,385 from 12,606.
A total of 1,79,694 candidates appeared in both papers of JEE Advanced 2026, of whom 56,880 qualified. The examination was held on May 17, with results announced on June 1.
The JIC report also noted that qualifying criteria were relaxed to ensure that at least twice the number of candidates as the available seats in each category qualified for the next stage.