“…Around 51.8 per cent of this illiterate population lives in South Asia, and among this 51.8 per cent, India’s share is around 62 per cent, making India the home of almost one-third (40.4 million, 32.2 per cent) of all the illiterate young people worldwide. A study reveals that of more than 27 million children in India who had joined class 1 in 1993, only 10 million had reached class 10, which is only about 37 per cent of those who had entered the school system; in more than half the states, 2 only 30 per cent had reached class 10 (Reddy and Sinha, 2010). It is true that with the implementation of The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTA), 2009, there has been a gradual decline in the annual average dropout rate from 9.1 in 2009–10 to 6.9 in 2010–11 ( Daily News and Analysis , 2012).…”