These days, one is supposed to write and speak in a political correct manner. Gender neutral writing and speaking has resulted in usage of  Gender neutral Nouns like Chair Person ( instead of chairman) and cop ( instead of policeman) and Gender neutral pronouns like he/she and They.

This article discusses the Gender neutral Pronouns.

Generally, the Singulars are formed using masculine pronouns as follows. ( This is common in Hindi too)

If a student wants , he can pay his fee in installments.
When I see someone in distress, I help him out.

We are not implying here that a student can only be a male or that the speaker only helps males , but rather a generality is indicated by using masculine pronoun.  This is just a generic he , that concerns both males and females.

Coming to gender neutrality, there are 2 ways that people often resort to.

1. He or She - Very commonly used in India.

A he or she can be used to  form a gender neutral tone. The above examples becomes gender neutral

If a student wants, he or she can pay his or her fee in installments.
When I see someone in distress, I help him or her out.

Problem with using he/she is that in long sentence you will end up using many he/she, his/her, him/her etc.

2. They as a gender neutral singular.

They / Them/ Their are all gender neutral Plurals. They are used many times to form gender neutral Singulars as follows

If a student wants, they can pay their fee in installments.
When I see someone in distress, I help them out.