Gender Parity Index (GPI) in Indian Schools — by Level & State (2024-25)
GetSchoolsInfo15 min read3 May 2026Updated 19 July 2026
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TL;DR
The Gender Parity Index (GPI) measures the ratio of girls' Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) to boys' GER. A GPI of 1.0 means perfect parity. In UDISE+ 2024-25, India's GPI is 1.0 at primary, upper primary, secondary — and 1.1 at higher secondary (girls out-enrol boys at Class 11-12). For Scheduled Tribe students, the higher-secondary GPI is 1.15 — among the most striking equity reversals in any developing-world school system. The drivers are well-documented: Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, KGBV residential schools for adolescent girls, Samagra Shiksha scholarships, free uniforms + textbooks, and conditional cash transfers for girl-child enrolment. We break down the numbers, the state spread, the policy stack — and the work still left to do.
Where GER (Gross Enrolment Ratio) = (total enrolled at a level) ÷ (population in the official age band for that level).
GPI values:
GPI = 1.0 → perfect parity — girls and boys enrol at equal rates relative to their population
GPI < 1.0 → boys enrol at higher rates (historically the global default)
GPI > 1.0 → girls enrol at higher rates
A GPI > 1.0 at a given level can mean two things — both worth distinguishing:
Girls' GER is genuinely high (good)
Boys are dropping out faster than girls (mixed — equity is up but absolute boys' attainment is down)
In India's case, both are true. Girls' GER has risen sharply across all levels; boys' enrolment has plateaued and at some levels fallen. Both phenomena combine to push GPI past 1.0.
The historic moment is the higher-secondary line. As recently as 2010, India's GPI at Class 11-12 was 0.83. The 2024-25 reading of 1.1 is not a rounding fluke — girls' GER (60.9%) is 4.7 percentage points above boys' (56.2%). Translated to absolute enrolment: 13,859,426 girls vs 13,784,291 boys at Class 11-12. Girls have now overtaken boys at every level of formal schooling in India.
Girls vs boys — absolute enrolment by level
Level
Boys
Girls
Girls' share
Pre-Primary
75,32,520
65,14,560
46.4%
Primary (1-5)
5,42,99,931
5,00,81,416
48.0%
Upper Primary (6-8)
3,28,73,194
3,08,21,906
48.4%
Elementary (1-8)
8,71,73,125
8,09,03,322
48.1%
Secondary (9-10)
1,91,08,582
1,80,56,854
48.6%
Higher Secondary (11-12)
1,37,84,291
1,38,59,426
50.1%
Total (Pre-K to Class 12)
12,75,98,518
11,93,34,162
48.3%
At higher secondary, girls cross 50% of total enrolment for the first time in independent India.
The gap between absolute counts (more boys overall) and GPI (more girls relative to population) reflects a demographic fact: India still has more boys than girls in the 0-17 cohort because of the residual sex-ratio-at-birth imbalance. The GPI corrects for that — and once corrected, girls win. The next demographic step is for the underlying sex ratio at birth itself to normalise (the SRB has improved from 919 in 2011 to 933 in 2022 NFHS-5, but is not yet at the natural rate of 952).
GPI for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students
Equity-within-equity matters. Here are the GPI numbers for SC and ST students:
Level
All-Categories GPI
SC GPI
ST GPI
Primary
1.03
1.04
1.01
Upper Primary
1.05
1.06
1.03
Elementary
1.04
1.05
1.02
Secondary
1.04
1.07
1.06
Higher Secondary
1.08
1.16
1.15
(GPI computed as GER-girls ÷ GER-boys. Numbers from UDISE+ 2024-25 Performance Indicators.)
The SC and ST GPI numbers at higher secondary are the most striking statistics in the report. ST girls (GER 55.5%) significantly out-enrol ST boys (GER 48.4%) at Class 11-12 — a GPI of 1.15. SC girls (GER 63.9%) out-enrol SC boys (GER 55.3%) — a GPI of 1.16. These are higher GPI values than the general population, suggesting that targeted girl-child policies have had an outsized impact on traditionally-marginalised groups.
But there's a flip side: SC + ST boys are dropping out faster, especially at the secondary-to-higher-secondary transition. GPI > 1.0 here is partly a story of girls' progress and partly a story of boys' stagnation — both demand policy attention.
What's driving the shift?
Five policy bundles have compounded over 20 years:
1. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP, launched 2015)
A central scheme combining sex-ratio-at-birth interventions, anti-discrimination outreach, and girl-child enrolment incentives. BBBP funds district-level Mahila Samakhya programmes that have been particularly effective in Haryana, Rajasthan, MP and UP — the four states with the lowest historical GPI at secondary. Haryana's secondary GPI moved from 0.84 (2014) to 1.0+ (2024) — among the largest reversals in the country.
2. Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV)
Residential upper-primary and secondary schools for girls from SC, ST, OBC, and minority communities, established in 2004. KGBV runs in about 4,800 educationally backward blocks. Each KGBV serves 100-200 girls with full residential support. The KGBV network is the single most successful girl-child intervention India has run — Class 8 retention rates inside KGBVs cross 95%, against state-government averages of 75-85%.
Centrally Sponsored Scheme funding everything from teacher salaries to free uniforms (₹600/girl/year) and free textbooks (Class 1-8 universal). The transport allowance for girls (₹2,500/year, secondary stage) introduced in 2018 has been particularly effective in low-density rural districts where the secondary school may be 5-10 km from the habitation.
4. Conditional Cash Transfers (state schemes)
Multiple state schemes — Mukhyamantri Kanya Vivah Yojana (MP), Kanyashree Prakalpa (West Bengal), Kalaivani / Aravinthar Scholarship (TN), Mukhyamantri Rajshri Yojana (Rajasthan) — make scholarship payments conditional on continued enrolment past Class 8 and Class 10. West Bengal's Kanyashree alone covers 60+ lakh girls and has been credited with 6 percentage points of West Bengal's secondary-stage GER improvement since 2014.
5. Right to Education Act, 2009
Mandatory free elementary education for ages 6-14 ended the pretext that girl-child education had a marginal cost worth weighing against opportunity. Combined with the Mid-Day Meal Scheme (now PM POSHAN), it removed the two largest household objections to sending girls to school: cost and afternoon-meal labour at home.
State spotlights — where GPI looks best (and worst)
UDISE+ 2024-25 doesn't publish state-wise GPI in a single table, but secondary-stage GER by state lets us reconstruct relative parity:
State
Secondary GER (Total)
Higher Secondary GER (Total)
Himachal Pradesh
102.6
84.7
Karnataka
101.3
61.4
Delhi
101.1
82.7
Telangana
99.9
67.6
West Bengal
99.4
51.5
Kerala
98.7
89.5
Tamil Nadu
95.5
83.4
Maharashtra
93.6
70.8
Uttarakhand
93.4
80.9
Punjab
92.6
79.5
Haryana
90.3
71.7
Andhra Pradesh
89.4
67.8
Odisha
84.0
60.7
Rajasthan
82.2
66.1
Chhattisgarh
77.5
53.5
Gujarat
74.7
47.3
Madhya Pradesh
68.2
45.0
Uttar Pradesh
64.3
57.4
Bihar
51.1
38.1
Bihar's secondary GER of 51.1% means roughly half of Bihar's 14-15 year-olds are not enrolled at the secondary level. The girls' rate here is even lower in absolute terms — but the parity may still hold because boys' rate is also low. This is the ambiguity baked into GPI: parity at low absolute levels is less impressive than parity at high absolute levels. Kerala (98.7% secondary GER, GPI ~1.0) and Bihar (51.1% secondary GER, GPI ~1.0) are both at parity, but they describe very different equilibria.
What's still pending
GPI > 1.0 doesn't mean the gender story is finished. Three open issues:
1. Boys are leaving the system
The same UDISE+ data that shows GPI > 1.0 also shows boys' secondary dropout rate at 13.3% vs girls' 9.6%. Higher-secondary retention for boys (45.0%) trails girls (49.6%) by ~5 percentage points. Boys' secondary GER of 56.2% means almost 44% of 16-17-year-old boys are not in higher secondary education. Of these, a large fraction are in informal-sector labour — construction, agriculture, gig work. This is a parallel crisis that GPI > 1.0 can mask.
2. Subject choice still skews
Even with girls dominating Class 11-12 enrolment, subject choice remains gendered. Science streams (PCM, PCB) are 47% girls; Commerce is 51% girls; Humanities is 65% girls. Engineering-track subjects are still male-dominated; nursing-track subjects are still female-dominated. The Class 12 marksheet shows parity; the JEE / NEET aspirant pool does not.
3. Higher education transition still gaps
Transition rate from Class 12 to higher education is 79.7% for boys and 75.6% for girls (national average, AISHE 2022-23). Despite the Class 12 lead, girls are less likely to enter Higher Education — partly because of marriage timing, partly because of family-investment differentials, partly because nearby colleges are not always available. AISHE 2022-23 records 28% women's enrolment in engineering vs 50% in arts. GPI gains stop at the school gate; the higher-ed gap is the next frontier.
What schools can actually do
For schools watching their own GPI numbers, three concrete actions:
Track Class 8 → Class 9 girl-child transition by name. Most secondary-stage dropout is invisible until a student doesn't show up for Class 9 admission. Maintain a class-wise tracker.
Audit infrastructure for gender-sensitive design. Functional girls' toilets, sanitary-pad access (the central scheme covers ₹150/girl/year), separate hand-wash facilities. Schools that score >90% on these basics retain girls 5-7% better than schools that don't.
Hire female teachers, especially STEM. Schools with a female mathematics or science teacher in the senior wing show 8-12 percentage points higher girl-child enrolment in PCM/PCB streams. UDISE+ records 47.4% of all India teachers as women — but the share is much lower in maths/science at secondary level.
For affiliations and infrastructure planning support, browse our board guides or pull live school-level data via getschoolsinfo.com.
FAQ
Q1. What does Gender Parity Index (GPI) actually measure?
GPI is the ratio of girls' Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) to boys' GER at a given level of education. Formula: GPI = GER(girls) ÷ GER(boys). A GPI of 1.0 means girls and boys enrol at equal rates relative to their respective populations. GPI < 1.0 means boys have higher enrolment rates; GPI > 1.0 means girls have higher rates. UNESCO and UNDP use GPI as one of the standard equity indicators in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 4 — Quality Education). India's GPI in 2024-25 is 1.0 at primary, upper primary and secondary, and 1.1 at higher secondary.
Q2. Has India achieved gender parity in schools?
Yes, at every formal level of schooling. UDISE+ 2024-25 reports GPI of 1.0 at primary, upper primary, secondary, and 1.1 at higher secondary. In absolute terms, girls' enrolment at Class 11-12 (1.39 crore) now exceeds boys' enrolment (1.38 crore) — the first time in independent India. The shift is 25 years old: India's secondary GPI was 0.7 in 1990, 0.83 in 2010, 0.95 in 2018, 1.0 in 2022, and 1.1 today. Five policy bundles drove the change: Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, KGBV, Samagra Shiksha, conditional cash transfers, and the Right to Education Act.
Q3. Why are girls now out-enrolling boys at Class 11-12?
Three concurrent causes. (1) Girls' GER has risen sharply — from 49% in 2010 to 60.9% today at higher secondary, driven by central + state scholarship schemes and KGBV-style residential support. (2) Boys' GER has plateaued and slightly fallen — from 58% in 2018 to 56.2% today — as boys' secondary dropout (13.3%) exceeds girls' (9.6%) due to early entry into informal-sector labour. (3) The remaining sex-ratio-at-birth imbalance means girls were the smaller cohort at birth; once enrolment rates equalise, girls' larger share of the enrolled population reflects both progress and demographic correction.
Q4. Which states have the best GPI in India?
Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Punjab maintain GPI ≥ 1.0 at every level. Notable improvers over the last decade: Haryana (secondary GPI from 0.84 to 1.0+), Rajasthan (0.82 to 0.98), Madhya Pradesh (0.85 to 0.95+). The state-wise GPI is not directly published by UDISE+ in a single table, but can be computed from the boys' and girls' GER numbers in the Performance Indicators annexure. States that still have meaningful GPI gaps at higher secondary (likely <0.95): Bihar, UP, MP — the same three states that have the lowest absolute GERs.
Q5. Is GPI > 1.0 actually a problem?
Mostly no — it reflects girls' progress. But it can mask a parallel issue: boys leaving the system. India's secondary boys' GER of 77.3% means nearly 23% of 14-15 year-old boys are not in school. Higher-secondary boys' GER of 56.2% means 44% are not in school. Most of these boys are in informal-sector labour. So GPI > 1.0 does not mean every gender issue is solved — it means we now have a girl-child outcome that is broadly on-track and a boy-child enrolment trajectory that needs serious policy attention. The next decade's challenge is dual: keep girls in higher education AND bring boys back into secondary completion.
Q6. What is KGBV and how did it help?
Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme launched in 2004 to provide residential upper-primary and secondary education to girls from SC, ST, OBC and minority communities in educationally backward blocks. Each KGBV serves 100-200 girls and provides full board, books, uniforms, and tuition. About 4,800 KGBVs operate nationally as of 2024. The scheme has been the single most effective girl-child intervention India has run — Class 8 retention inside KGBV crosses 95% versus state averages of 75-85%. KGBV girls also score 8-12 percentage points higher on Class 10 board exams than out-of-school controls in the same district.
Q7. How does GPI vary for SC and ST students?
GPI for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students is higher than the general population at higher secondary — SC GPI is 1.16, ST GPI is 1.15 at Class 11-12 (computed from UDISE+ 2024-25 GER numbers). This is a striking equity reversal — girls from traditionally-marginalised communities now substantially out-enrol boys from the same communities. Two factors explain this: targeted scholarship schemes (post-matric scholarships, KGBV expansion in tribal blocks) have lifted girls' GER, while SC/ST boys are exiting the system faster than girls due to early labour-market entry. The SC/ST male dropout problem at secondary is now one of the most under-discussed equity challenges in Indian schooling.
Q8. Does GPI vary by school management?
Yes — sharply. Government schools enroll more girls than boys in absolute terms (62,488,473 girls vs 59,101,438 boys — girls are 51.4% of government school enrolment). Aided schools are roughly balanced (12,134,962 girls vs 12,626,564 boys — 49.0% girls). Private unaided schools enroll fewer girls than boys (42,499,250 girls vs 53,357,460 boys — only 44.3% girls). The implication: as families move children to private schools, they preferentially move boys. Girls are over-represented in the government school system and under-represented in the private school system — a gendered allocation of household education spending.
Q9. What is the dropout difference between boys and girls at secondary?
UDISE+ 2024-25 reports secondary dropout of 13.3% for boys vs 9.6% for girls (national average; Class 9 + 10 combined). Girls now drop out at a meaningfully lower rate than boys at secondary — a complete reversal of the 1990s and 2000s pattern. The states with the highest girl-dropout-still-above-boys: West Bengal, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat. The states where boys drop out the most relative to girls: Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana — typically states with strong agricultural and informal-labour pull on adolescent boys.
Q10. Where can I see GPI for my own state or district?
The official UDISE+ Report 2024-25 publishes state-wise GER for boys, girls, and total at every level of education (Performance Indicators Annexure). You can compute GPI yourself: GPI = GER(girls) ÷ GER(boys). For district-level GPI, use the UDISE+ State Report Cards published by NIEPA (National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration) and downloadable from udiseplus.gov.in. For school-by-school enrolment by gender, see the school search at getschoolsinfo.com, where each school's UDISE record includes gender-disaggregated enrolment by class.
Sources: UDISE+ Report 2024-25 (Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education, Government of India); AISHE Report 2022-23 for higher-education transition rates; NFHS-5 for sex ratio at birth; KGBV Annual Report (Samagra Shiksha). Numbers verified against UDISE+ Annexures Tables 6.1–6.7 (Performance Indicators) and 5.5 (Enrolments by Gender).