6.54 cr Indians never attended school: Census

New Delhi, October 31 

As many as 6.54 crore people in the 5-19 age group have never attended school while another 4.49 crore have dropped out of school in the last decade.

According to the 2011 Census, there is a 38.01 crore population in the 5-19 age group of which 26.98 crore (71 per cent) is attending educational institutions, 4.49 crore (11.8 per cent) have attended schools earlier while 6.54 crore (17.2 per cent) have never been to school.

About 65.7 lakh people in the age group of 5-19 disabled are disabled —17.5 lakh (26.7 per cent) of them have never attended school, eight lakh (12.1 per cent) haves dropped out in the last decade while 40.2 lakh people (61.2 per cent) are attending educational institutions.

Among the disabled who never went to school,  54.5 per cent had ‘multiple disability’, 50.3 per cent suffered from a ‘mental illness’ and 41.2 per cent from ‘mental retardation’. The percentage of those with ‘any other disability’ stood at 17.7

Of the 40.2 lakh disabled persons attending educational institutions, 22.8 lakh (56.7 per cent) are male and 17.4 lakh (43.3 per cent) female. — PTI