3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jul 28, 2026 05:55 PM IST
Eight out of every 100 girls enrolled in secondary school dropped out before completing their education in 2025–26. That is the key takeaway from the Education Ministry’s reply in the Lok Sabha this week. While the secondary school dropout rate for girls fell to 8 per cent — the lowest in the past three years, down from 12.6 per cent in 2023–24 and 9.6 per cent in 2024–25 — it remains starkly higher than at the primary level. Even at its lowest, the secondary school dropout rate for girls is nearly 80 times higher than the primary school dropout rate.
The numbers come from UDISE+, the government’s own school database, and were tabled by Minister of State Jayant Chaudhary in response to a question from MP Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer. The reply breaks dropout rates into three stages: primary, upper primary, and secondary.
The pattern across almost every state is the same. Girls barely drop out in the early years; some slippage begins around classes 6 to 8, and then a much bigger share vanishes by class 9 or 10, right around the age when most reach puberty, and families start weighing school against work, marriage, or money.
Nationally, primary dropout among girls is close to zero, at just 0.1 per cent. Upper primary sits at 3.4 per cent. Secondary jumps to 8 per cent. The Centre’s own explanation, drawn from the 2023-24 Periodic Labour Force Survey, lists the reasons in plain terms: girls leave to supplement household income, to attend to domestic chores, or because their parents simply do not see further education as necessary.
What do state-specific numbers say?
State-wise, the secondary-level numbers throw up some surprises. These are not necessarily the poorest states on paper, which suggests the drivers here go beyond income alone and could include distance to secondary schools, safety concerns, or early marriage.
Girls’ dropout rates at the secondary level (Classes 9–10) remain the highest across school stages, though they have fallen from 12.6% in 2023–24 to 8% in 2025–26. State-level disparities persist, with Ladakh (15.6%) recording the highest dropout rate, followed by Assam and Karnataka (13.9% each), Gujarat (13.3%), and Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland (12.4% each), indicating that retention challenges remain concentrated in a handful of states.
Toilets, hygiene and the bigger picture
The question that prompted this reply was about school toilets, and the numbers there look far healthier. As per UDISE+ 2025-26, 95.4 percent of government schools in India now have separate functional toilets for girls, covering over 9.5 lakh schools. States like Delhi, Goa, and Chandigarh report full coverage, while Arunachal Pradesh, at 67.9 percent, and Mizoram, at 72.7 percent, trail furthest behind.
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But the ministry was careful to note that no central study has directly linked toilet access to female dropout rates. Instead, schemes like the Samagra Shiksha fund sanitary pad vending machines and incinerators, while a separate Health Ministry programme reaches 53.9 lakh adolescent girls a month with sanitary napkins and awareness drives.