SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir has separate functional toilets for girls in 83.1 per cent of its government schools, significantly below the national coverage of 95.4 per cent, while Ladakh’s coverage stands at 86.8 per cent, according to data tabled in the Lok Sabha.
The figures were provided by Minister of State for Education Jayant Chaudhary in a written reply to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1230, raised by Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer and answered on July 27, 2026.
As per UDISE+ 2025-26 data cited in the reply, 15,524 government schools in Jammu and Kashmir have separate functional toilets for girls, accounting for 83.1 per cent of schools. In Ladakh, 631 schools, or 86.8 per cent, have such facilities. The national figure is 9,50,508 government schools, representing 95.4 per cent coverage.
The data show that Jammu and Kashmir’s coverage is 12.3 percentage points below the national average, while Ladakh is 8.6 percentage points lower. Among the two Union Territories, Ladakh has the higher coverage by 3.7 percentage points.
The parliamentary reply, however, did not provide separate Union Territory-wise figures for menstrual hygiene management facilities such as sanitary pad vending machines and incinerators. The Ministry said support for installing such facilities is available under the Samagra Shiksha scheme based on proposals submitted by States and UTs through their Annual Work Plan and Budget.
The reply also showed that girls’ dropout rates in Jammu and Kashmir have declined across all three school stages over the three years covered by UDISE+ data. At the primary level, the dropout rate fell from 1.3 per cent in 2023-24 to 1 per cent in 2025-26. At the upper-primary level, it declined from 3.3 per cent to 3 per cent, while the secondary-level rate dropped from 12.6 per cent to 11.1 per cent.
In Ladakh, the primary-level dropout rate fell from 3.6 per cent in 2023-24 to 0.8 per cent in 2025-26, while the upper-primary rate declined from 4.3 per cent to 2.1 per cent. However, the secondary dropout rate stood at 15.6 per cent in 2025-26, up from 14.4 per cent in 2024-25, though lower than the 16.7 per cent recorded in 2023-24.
Nationally, girls’ dropout rates in 2025-26 stood at 0.1 per cent at the primary level, 3.4 per cent at upper-primary level and 8 per cent at secondary level. Thus, both Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh recorded higher secondary-level dropout rates than the national average, with Ladakh showing the larger gap.
The Ministry said the Department of School Education and Literacy has developed the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) to collect school education data from all States and Union Territories.
On menstrual hygiene, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is implementing the Scheme for Promotion of Menstrual Hygiene under the Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram. The government said the interventions under the National Health Mission reached 53.9 lakh adolescent girls every month during 2025-26 through sanitary napkin distribution and awareness activities.
The Centre also said the National Menstrual Hygiene Policy for School-Going Girls has been formulated to promote awareness, improve access to safe and affordable menstrual absorbents, strengthen water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure, and support safe disposal mechanisms.
The government cited the 2023-24 Periodic Labour Force Survey report of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, which identified major reasons for girls dropping out as the need to supplement household income, domestic chores and parents not considering education necessary. The parliamentary reply did not cite a central impact assessment establishing a direct link between inadequate sanitation infrastructure and female dropouts.
