As per an independent study commissioned by the Government of India the number of out of school children has decreased form 1.35 crore in 2005 to 81 lakh in 2009. The improvement in gender parity index at elementary level from 0.80 in 2000-01 to 0.93 in 2006-07, indicates the improvement in participation of girls at elementary level.

The Saakshar Bharat scheme also focuses on women’s literacy, especially in rural areas. 80 per cent overall literacy is targeted by the end of the 11th Plan period. The States/UT Governments have been informed that under Saskshar Bharat 70 million non-literates are to be made literate, of which 60 million will be women.

The National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986 (as modified in 1992) provides for a National System of Education, which implies that up to a given level, all students, irrespective of caste, creed, location or sex, have access to education of a comparable quality. It also accord priority for improvement of the standard of education at all levels for children living in rural and urban areas.




The NPE recognized that the rural areas, with poor infrastructure services, will not get the benefits of trained and educated youth, unless rural-urban disparities are reduced and determined measures are taken to promote diversification of employment opportunities. Pursuant to this, a large number of schemes/programmes are under various stages of implementation, which predominantly address the educational needs of rural areas including technical education. The scheme/programmes include Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Mid-day Meal scheme (MDM), Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) scheme, Mahila Samakhya and the scheme of Information & Communication Technology (ICT) in Schools, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas have been opened in rural areas specifically in order to provide quality education to rural children. There are other institutions such as Gandhigram Rural Institute and the National Council of Rural Institute which address issues of reducing disparities in education.




This information was given by the Minister of State for Human Resource Development Smt. D. Purandeswari, in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha