New Delhi: The share of students from minority communities in India’s schools has risen across all four levels over the past five years, but the government does not maintain religion-wise enrolment or dropout figures, the Ministry of Minority Affairs told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
In a written reply to a starred question by Sachithanantham R, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP from Tamil Nadu, Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) records the six notified communities—Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi and Jain—only as a single aggregate.
According to the data tabled in the House, the minority share of primary enrolment climbed from 18.8 percent in 2021-22 to 21.8 percent in 2025-26, a rise of three percentage points. The share went up at the upper primary level from 17.8 percent to 19.6 percent, at the secondary level from 16.4 percent to 18.7 percent, and at the higher secondary level from 15.1 percent to 17.1 percent over the same period.
Much of that increase, however, comes against a shrinking overall base. Total primary enrolment fell from 12.18 crore in 2021-22 to 10.19 crore in 2025-26—a drop of nearly 2 crore children. Minority enrolment at the primary level eased only marginally over the period, from 2.29 crore to 2.22 crore, which meant its share of the total rose even as the absolute number dipped.
On dropouts, the ministry said UDISE+ maintains the rate only at the aggregate level, without any break-up by community or religion. It further stated that the dropout rate is not captured separately for the secondary level—the stage at which children are most prone to leaving school.
The aggregate figures placed on the table showed sharp fluctuations from one year to the next. At the primary level, the dropout rate rose from 1.45 in 2021-22 to 7.8 in 2022-23, before falling to 1.9, and then to 0.3 in each of the two most recent years. The upper primary rate ranged between 3.02 and 8.1, while the secondary rate, the highest of the three, declined from 12.61 in 2021-22 to 9.5 in 2025-26.
For higher education, the ministry drew on the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), which counts Muslim students separately and groups the remaining five communities as “other minority communities.”
In 2023-24, the most recent survey year, Muslim enrolment in higher education stood at 22.53 lakh, of which 11.65 lakh were women. The other minority communities together accounted for 10.80 lakh students, including 5.71 lakh women, against a total enrolment of 4.50 crore.
Muslim enrolment had dipped in the pandemic year, from 21 lakh in 2019-20 to 19.22 lakh in 2020-21, before recovering to 21.08 lakh in 2021-22 and rising to 22.44 lakh by 2022-23.
The minister said the concept of dropout does not apply to higher education, as students select among several options and move between courses and programmes, and that AISHE, being an annual enrolment survey, does not track attrition.
Rijiju added that the Ministry of Minority Affairs runs scholarship schemes across the country for the socio-economic and educational empowerment of the six communities, and that the school and higher education data is compiled by the Ministry of Education through UDISE+ and AISHE, respectively.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: Why Centre’s Rajya Sabha Bill seeks to give Vande Mataram the National Anthem’s legal protection