When 15-year-old Riya Kumari stopped going to school in rural Uttar Pradesh last year, her teachers thought she'd fallen ill. A week turned into a month. Then one day, her father arrived at the school to collect her transfer certificate. "She helps her mother and also stitches blouses at home for some money," he said.
Riya was among the 13% of 15–16-year-olds in Uttar Pradesh who were not enrolled in school, according to the latest ASER 2024 report a figure that mirrors an unsettling national pattern: India's teenagers are leaving school early, despite rising overall enrolments.
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Across the country, classrooms are fuller at the lower levels but thinner as students age. At the secondary level, dropout rates hover between 9% and 12% nationally, according to UDISE+ 2024-25, compared to less than 1% in primary grades. For every student who completes Class 10, another quietly slips away to work, to family duties, to the growing pressures of survival or disinterest.
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