The share of students from notified minority communities in school education has increased across all four levels over the past five academic years, the Centre informed Parliament on Thursday.
Replying to a starred question in the Lok Sabha, Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said enrolment of minority students has shown steady growth from primary to higher secondary education, while clarifying that the government does not maintain religion-wise enrolment or dropout data under its school education database.
The reply came in response to a question raised by Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP Sachithanantham R.
Rijiju explained that the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) records students belonging to the country’s six notified minority communities—Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains—as a single aggregated category rather than maintaining separate religion-wise data.
He added that the Centre has implemented a range of welfare initiatives aimed at all sections of society, with special emphasis on economically weaker and socially disadvantaged groups, including minority communities.
The Minister also said the Ministry of Minority Affairs administers scholarship schemes across the country to promote the educational and socio-economic empowerment of the six notified minority communities.
According to Rijiju, school education statistics are compiled through the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+), while higher education data is collected under the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE).
Minority Enrolment Shows Consistent Growth
Data tabled in the Lok Sabha showed that minority students accounted for 18.8 per cent of enrolment at the primary level in the 2021-22 academic year.
The share increased to 20.9 per cent in 2022-23, 21.2 per cent in 2023-24, 21.5 per cent in 2024-25 and 21.8 per cent in 2025-26.
At the upper primary level, minority enrolment rose from 17.8 per cent in 2021-22 to 19.6 per cent in 2025-26.
Similarly, the proportion of minority students at the secondary level increased from 16.4 per cent to 18.7 per cent over the same period.
At the higher secondary level, enrolment grew from 15.1 per cent in 2021-22 to 17.1 per cent in 2025-26.
Dropout Rates Remain Stable
The government also informed Parliament that overall dropout rates in the 2025-26 academic year stood at 0.3 per cent at the primary level, 3.6 per cent at the upper primary level and 9.5 per cent at the secondary level.
The Centre reiterated that while comprehensive school education data is collected through UDISE+, religion-wise enrolment and dropout statistics are not maintained separately under the existing database framework.
