The rate of girls from 11-14 not in school had dropped from 10% in 2006 to 4%. More women than ever wer enrolling in secondary school n college. Howeva, India’s dropout rates for girls remains high. India’s dropout rates for girls r as high as 57% by high school. A thread(1/n)

Traditional gender norms push girls into helping with household chores and sibling care, leading to irregular attendance and results in dropouts. 40% of girls ages 15-18-year-olds had dropped out of school, usually to help with housework. (2/n)

Early marriage, lack of safety in schools, and low aspirations related to girls' education too account for the dropout. ASER suggests that the predominant reason for girls dropping out is family constraints (32.5% at secondary level). (3/n)

Girls find it difficult to re-enter education once they have dropped out due to lack of bridging mechanisms for out-of-school children, especially at the secondary level. Distance is a big contributing factor to girls dropping out. (4/n)

Provision for easy, safer affordable commute to school, make schooling safer, and enhances retention of girls. Cycles for the girl child, Tola Sevaks in Bihar are good initiatives towards this direction(5/n)

As per reports for every 100 elementary schools in rural India, there were 14 offering secondary and only six offering higher secondary grades. 40% of schools offering secondary or higher secondary grades are private, unaided institutions. (6/n)

The most economically vulnerable groups who typically lack access to financial capital and have limited opportunities to gain education, knowledge, and skills. (7/n)

ASER 2017 finds that 70.7% out-of-school youth have mothers who have never been to school. The lack of presence of strong female role models in the community to inspire has played its part in some rural areas (8/n)

Lack of resources, proper health education, or common taboos about being “unclean” during menstruation, millions of girls drop out of school or start taking extended periods of absence around middle school due to their menstruation cycles(9/n)

According to a survey in 2018, as many as 80% of teachers still believe in menstrual taboos. Kerala is the first state to provide free sanitary napkins in schools and other states should follow suit(10/n)

A recent report by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights suggests around 65% girls who do not attend any educational institution are either engaged in household activities, are dependents or are engaged in begging(11/n)

Due to shortage of toilet facility, 23% of adolescent girls drop out from schools. School infrastructure needs to improve through the availability of usable toilets. Shows the state of affairs of women empowerment in our nation.(12/n)

Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao cannot be achieved without a fundamental right to secondary education backed by measures that make free quality public education institutions available and accessible for all, especially girls(13/n)

While it is important to work with and empower girls, it is also critical to engage with boys to create a better, more gender-equal tomorrow(n/n).

Sources: ASER reports, IDRA, Borgen Magazine, and various other articles