NEET Exam: Why more women qualify, top the lists, but still can't make it to AIIMS

Despite women constituting around 58% of candidates qualifying the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET UG), their presence in All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) – India’s premier public medical institutions – and other state medical colleges remains disproportionately low. National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) data from the last six years, till 2023-24, reveals that women account for around 30% of MBBS students at various AIIMS – and at AIIMS Delhi, India’s top-ranked medical institute, it’s 26%.

The disparity, however, narrows at the postgraduate level, for which the entrance exam is NEET PG. Across AIIMS campuses, women account for nearly 47% of students enrolled in MD courses as against over 50% at private medical colleges.

Teachers at medical colleges maintain that the admission process itself is fair, but experts from the coaching industry point to the intense emphasis on physics as the “decisive differentiator” in NEET exams.

The NEET 2026 was cancelled due to a paperleak. The National Test Agency (NTA) will hold the Re-NEET 2026 on Sunday, June 21.

NTA NEET Exam: Women less than 30% at AIIMS

The medical category was introduced in the NIRF ranking in 2018. Women representation in MBBS at AIIMS Delhi – the top institute in the year – stood at 25%. The number has fluctuated between 23-26% ever since.

Source: NIRF (AIIMS covered features in the top 100 ranks)

The intake in AIIMS Delhi stands at 132. Till 2019-20 it was around 105.

Among the other AIIMS, at Rishikesh – established in 2012 – the representation was at 31% in 2023-24, the latest academic year for which data is available in public domain. The institute has 125 seats.

Even at other institutes in top 5, such as Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (JIPGMER) Puducherry, women representation till 2023-24 was at 38%. At Banaras Hindu University (BHU), ranked 6th in NIRF 2025, the count was just 25% in MBBS courses.

Source: NIRF

NEET UG Counselling: 50% to qualify women

In 2023-24, out of the 11,56,618 women who appeared in the NEET exam, 6,55,599 qualified, and among the 50 toppers, 10 were women. The woman with the highest rank was 4th on the list.

Source: NTA

"AIIMS operates at the 99.9th percentile where physics becomes the decisive differentiator. Girls in PCB streams often receive less intensive physics preparation than PCM students — not because of aptitude, but because of how coaching is structured. Add to this the social reality that families are more comfortable relocating sons than daughters for residential coaching, and the preparation gap quietly widens,” said Keshav Agarwal, career counsellor, Exemplar Point. He is also the vice president of the Coaching Federation of India (CFI).

In 2023, the highest rank closing at AIIMS Delhi was 57. In 2024, that number tightened to 47, and in 2025, 48. At AIIMS Jodhpur, the closing rank cutoff for general category in 2023 was 534, yet the count of women on campus was 24%. In 2025 the cutoff rank was 392.

Over the years, the number of students taking the NEET exams has been rising consistently. In 2019, around 15.2 lakh students appeared; by 2024, it was over 23 lakh.

MBBS: Private medical colleges fare better

At Christian Medical College (CMC) Vellore, which ranks third in NIRF, strength of women students fluctuated between 52-54% till 2023-24.

Source: NIRF

Women representation at Amrita Vishwapeetham and Dr DY Patil Vidyapeeth, Pune – both private medical colleges – is beyond 60%. As of 2025-26, the one-year tuition fees at DY Patil Vidyapeeth is Rs 27 lakh, excluding hostel and eligibility fees. In Amrita, it is Rs 25 lakh and the entire duration of four-and-a-half years costs Rs1.12 crore.

At AIIMS, fees for the entire five-year duration costs approximately between Rs 2-2.5 lakh, including the hostel fees.