Why 65 Lakh Children Leaving School in 5 Years Should Shake the Nation’s Conscience

India has always spoken proudly of its demographic dividend, but the latest dropout figures reveal a painful contradiction: the country is losing its children—not to conflict or disease—but to a slowly widening education vacuum. In the past five years alone, 65.7 lakh students have dropped out of school, and nearly half of them—29.8 lakh—are adolescent girls. This is not just a statistic. It is a national warning siren.

The data, presented in Parliament by Minister of State for Women and Child Development Savitri Thakur, exposes an uncomfortable truth: despite schemes, slogans, and budgets, India is failing millions of its school-age children. Even more worrying is the stark unevenness across states, with Gujarat emerging as the most unsettling example.

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Gujarat’s 341% Spike: A Case Study in Governance Blind Spots

Gujarat, a state often showcased as an education performer, has reported a shocking 341% surge in school dropouts. The numbers are staggering: 2.4 lakh out-of-school children in 2025–26, including 1.1 lakh adolescent girls. Only a year earlier, the state had reported just 54,541. The explosion in figures is not a statistical anomaly—it is a systemic red flag.

When a state reports just one out-of-school girl in 2024 and 1.1 lakh the following year, it raises a fundamental question: Were we measuring reality, or merely comfort? The jump reflects not just failure in retention but also failure in identification, monitoring, and honest reporting.

Assam, Uttar Pradesh, and the Geography of Disadvantage

Assam, with 1.5 lakh out-of-school children, and Uttar Pradesh, with 99,218, present their own troubling landscape. In both states, girls disproportionately vanish from classrooms. These numbers come at a time when several state governments, including Uttar Pradesh, have merged schools with fewer than 50 students—a decision now being viewed through an uncomfortable lens. Were consolidation exercises pushing children away rather than pulling them in?

For girls especially, education is not just a right—it is a battle. Migration, poverty, unpaid household work, child labour, and entrenched social norms continue to create a hostile environment for their schooling. Policymakers cannot keep pretending these barriers exist on the periphery—they sit at the heart of the dropout crisis.

Schemes Exist—but Are They Reaching the Last Girl?

The Centre points to initiatives under Samagra Shiksha—new schools up to senior secondary level, expanded Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, free uniforms, textbooks, and transport. On paper, these interventions look robust. On the ground, they are riddled with inconsistencies.

Even the much-publicized “Bringing Children Back to School” campaign depends heavily on state machinery, School Management Committees, and local bodies. But without accountability, such drives risk becoming tokenistic exercises—annual rituals rather than long-term commitments.

The government says ₹56,694 crore was spent under Samagra Shiksha in 2024–25. But the real question is: How much of this translated into actual retention? Throwing money at a problem without monitoring outcomes is not policy—it is optics.

The Girls We Are Losing

Every dropout is a future prematurely closed. For adolescent girls, the stakes are even higher: early marriage, unsafe work, trafficking, and the permanent erosion of economic independence. Once a girl leaves school, the probability of her returning is devastatingly low.

India cannot claim progress if nearly 30 lakh girls disappear from classrooms in five years.

What Needs to Change Now

As an education journalist watching this crisis unfold, I see three urgent shifts India must make:

1. Dropout Data Must Be Transparent and Real-Time
   States reporting near-zero dropouts one year and lakhs the next signals broken systems—not progress. We need district-level dashboards that expose, not hide, realities.
   
   
2. Policies Must Centre Girls, Not Treat Them as an Afterthought
   Transport support, safety infrastructure, menstrual hygiene facilities, and community mobilization must be non-negotiable priorities.
   
   
3. School Mergers and Rationalisation Must Stop Until Impact is Assessed
   Closing small schools may make administrative sense, but for children in remote areas, it widens the distance between them and their right to learn.
   

A National Crisis We Are Not Calling by Its Name

India cannot afford an education disaster of this magnitude. A country that dreams of a $5-trillion economy cannot allow 65 lakh children to quietly walk out of its classrooms. The dropout crisis is not an education issue—it is a social, economic, and moral crisis.

And until policymakers acknowledge it as such, the numbers will keep rising, and the children—especially girls—will keep disappearing.

This is not just a report. It is an alarm. And India must listen before an entire generation slips through the cracks.

About the Author: 

Nibedita is an independent journalist honoured by the Government of India for her contributions to defence journalism.She has been an Accredited Defence Journalist since 2018, certified by the Ministry of Defence, Government of India.  With over 15 years of experience in print and digital media, she has extensively covered rural India, healthcare, education, and women’s issues. Her in-depth reporting has earned her an award from the Government of Goa back to back in 2018 and 2019. Nibedita’s work has been featured in leading national and international publications such as The Jerusalem Post, Down To Earth, Alt News, Sakal Times, and others