45% drop out because of marriage or housework.

Our finding

Why we rated this “False”

What the official series records

School dropout in India is tracked through UDISE+, the education ministry's administrative data system, which reports by level and by gender each year.

For 2025-26, the girls' secondary dropout rate stands at 8.0%. The two preceding years recorded 9.6% and 12.6% — a consistent decline across three consecutive rounds.

At earlier stages of schooling the figures are lower still: 0.1% at primary level and 3.4% at upper-primary in 2025-26.

The longer comparison

Data placed before the Lok Sabha in November 2016 recorded the girls' secondary dropout rate at 17.79% in 2013-14 and 16.88% in 2014-15. [1]

Measured against 8.0% in 2025-26, the rate has fallen by 9.79 percentage points — slightly more than halving over roughly a decade. [2]

Where the 45% figure sits

No current UDISE+ measure produces 45%.

A figure that size would have to be drawing on something else — an older dataset, a different definition, a specific sub-population, or a measure of *reasons given* by those who do drop out rather than the dropout rate itself. Which of these is intended has not been stated, and without that the number cannot be reconciled with the official series.

Presented as the current dropout rate for Indian girls, it sits roughly five to six times above what the administrative data records.

On marriage and housework as causes

The stated causes deserve separating from the disputed figure.

Marriage and domestic responsibility are genuinely among the reasons girls leave school in India, and that is not in question here. The point at issue is the scale claimed, not whether these factors operate.

It is also worth noting what the dropout rate does and does not capture. It measures leaving before completing a stage. It does not measure attendance quality, learning outcomes, or whether a girl who stays enrolled is able to study effectively alongside domestic work at home.

Where the claim goes wrong

The rate is stated as 45%. The official measure for the most recent year is 8.0%, following a decade of steady decline from 17.79%.

What still needs attention

An 8.0% secondary dropout rate means roughly one girl in twelve still leaves before completing secondary education. Distributed across India's school population, that is a large number of girls, concentrated in the communities least able to absorb the loss.

Halving a rate is real progress. It is not the same as solving the problem, and the remaining 8% is where the harder work sits.

In short

UDISE+ records the girls' secondary dropout rate at 8.0% for 2025-26, down from 17.79% in 2013-14. No official current measure supports 45%.