Parliament Question: Enrolment and Dropouts of Minority Students

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF MINORITY AFFAIRS LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *141 ANSWERED ON 29.07.2026 ENROLLMENT AND DROPOUTS OF MINORITY STUDENTS

141. SHRI SACHITHANANTHAM R.

Will the Minister of Minority Affairs be pleased to state: the enrollment and dropout percentages of Minority vis-à-vis General students in Primary, Upper Primary, Secondary, Higher Secondary and Higher Education Institutions during the last five academic years, religion-wise? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF MINORITY AFFAIRS (SHRI KIREN RIJIJU) A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

*****STATEMENT AS REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *141 TO BE ANSWERED ON 29.07.2026 ASKED BY HON’BLE MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT SHRI SACHITHANANTHAM R. REGARDING “THE ENROLLMENT AND DROPOUTS OF MINORITY STUDENTS”.

The Government has implemented various schemes for the welfare and upliftment of every stratum, including minorities, especially the economically weaker and lesser privileged sections of the society, through various schemes of different Ministries.

Ministry of Minority Affairs has specifically implemented various Scholarship schemes, across the country for socio-economic and educational empowerment of the six notified minority communities.

Further, the Department of School Education & Literacy (DoSEL), Ministry of Education has developed the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) to record data on school education, and the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education conducts the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) to record data on higher education, including enrolment of students belonging to minority communities.

As per information furnished by the Ministry of Education, the position is as under:

School Education (Primary, Upper Primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary):

Year-wise and level-wise enrolment of students belonging to minority communities, vis-à-vis overall enrolment along with dropout rates, for the last five academic years (2021-22 to 2025-26) as per UDISE+ is at Annexure-I. It is submitted that UDISE+ maintains minority enrolment as an aggregate of the six notified minority communities (Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi and Jain) and does not maintain enrolment figures disaggregated religion-wise.

It is submitted that UDISE+ presently maintains dropout rate at the aggregate level only, and this data is not maintained disaggregated by minority community/religion, nor is dropout rate captured separately for the Secondary level.

Higher Education:

As per AISHE, year-wise enrolment of 'Muslim' and 'Other Minority Community' students (Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi and Jain taken together), gender-wise, vis-à-vis overall enrolment in Higher Education Institutions, for the last five available AISHE survey years (2019-20 to 2023-24), is at Annexure-II.

In the Higher Education Sector, as students have multiple options they choose and migrate from one course or program to another, there is no concept of dropout in higher education. *****ANNEXURE-I ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *141 FOR 29.07.2026 Enrolment of Minority Students vis-à-vis Overall Enrolment, School Education (UDISE+) All-India, Year-wise (2021-22 to 2025-26) Primary Year Overall Enrolment Minority Enrolment % Minority Overall Dropout Rate** 2021-22 12,18,42,250 2,29,12,585 18.8% 1.45 2022-23 11,24,21,298 2,34,98,927 20.9% 7.8 2023-24 10,78,37,711 2,29,09,194 21.2% 1.9 2024-25 10,43,81,347 2,24,86,776 21.5% 0.3 2025-26 10,19,15,874 2,21,77,218 21.8% 0.3 Upper Primary Year Overall Enrolment Minority Enrolment % Minority Overall Dropout Rate** 2021-22 6,67,90,692 1,19,13,446 17.8% 3.02 2022-23 6,34,77,860 1,22,80,606 19.3% 8.1 2023-24 6,31,26,015 1,21,61,506 19.3% 5.2 2024-25 6,36,95,100 1,22,55,651 19.2% 3.5 2025-26 6,32,41,424 1,23,79,764 19.6% 3.6 ** Data related to dropout is maintained at the aggregate level only, it is not maintained disaggregated minority community/religion wiseSecondary Year Overall Enrolment Minority Enrolment % Minority Overall Dropout Rate** 2021-22 3,85,28,631 63,08,410 16.4% 12.61 2022-23 3,79,34,094 69,64,531 18.4% 16.4 2023-24 3,68,63,791 68,50,934 18.6% 14.1 2024-25 3,71,65,436 68,46,375 18.4% 11.5 2025-26 3,82,90,413 71,49,737 18.7% 9.5 Higher Secondary Year Overall Enrolment Minority Enrolment % Minority Overall Dropout Rate 2021-22 2,85,79,050 43,04,963 15.1% AISHE is an annual enrolment survey and does 2022-23 2,77,90,658 46,02,819 16.6% not capture dropout/attrition data for 2023-24 2,71,35,514 45,55,430 16.8% Higher Education 2024-25 2,76,43,717 46,13,347 16.7% Institutions.

2025-26 2,88,59,146 49,23,667 17.1% ** Data related to dropout is maintained at the aggregate level only, it is not maintained disaggregated minority community/religion wiseANNEXURE-II Year-wise Minority Enrolment in Higher Education Institutions vis-à-vis Overall Enrolment (AISHE) AISHE Survey Overall Enrolment Muslim Other Minority Communities Year Total Female Total Female Total Female 2023-24 4,50,01,123 2,23,52,948 22,52,799 11,65,295 10,79,566 5,71,197 2022-23 4,46,32,261 2,17,54,890 22,43,813 11,23,430 10,46,514 5,60,384 2021-22 4,32,68,181 2,06,91,792 21,08,033 10,39,267 9,05,159 4,77,734 2020-21 4,13,80,713 2,01,42,803 19,21,713 9,67,058 8,29,866 4,48,102 2019-20 3,85,36,359 1,88,92,612 21,00,860 10,54,486 8,87,750 4,83,002