Engineering education in any country is crucial for driving socio-economic progress and innovation. Despite the importance of engineering education, female participation in this field in India remains low, presenting a significant challenge. Gender disparities in technical and engineering education in India stem from deeply ingrained socio-cultural norms and institutional practices that position these fields as inherently masculine. To understand the factors influencing students’ choice of engineering courses, we have applied a logit regression technique using data from the 71st round of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) at the unit level. The analysis reveals that several socio-economic factors, namely, location, education level of the household head, gender, religion, economic status of the households, etc., significantly affect students’ decisions regarding engineering courses. It is found that female is associated with a lower probability of enrolment in Engineering and IT courses compared to being male.