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From school to PhD, the SC share of students is lower at every stage: 17.7% of school students, 10.0% of PhD students

What share of students are from Scheduled Castes at each stage, from school to PhD?

By The Dalit ProjectUPDATED OCTOBER 12, 2026

Key takeaways

  • SC students are 17.7% of school students, 15.5% of college and university students and 8.9% of those who completed a PhD. Exhibit 1
  • In central universities SC students are 13.2% of students, and in Institutes of National Importance (the Indian Institutes of Technology, National Institutes of Technology, All India Institutes of Medical Sciences and others named by an Act of Parliament) 13.4%; 15% of seats are reserved for them at admission. Exhibit 2
  • Private universities teach 31.4% of students in universities' own departments; SC students are 6.8% of them. The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006 covers central institutions only. Exhibit 2
  • Households spent ₹45,849 (about US$700) a year on an SC student in a technical or professional degree course in 2017-18, against ₹63,495 (about US$980) for all students; free places and fee waivers count as nothing. Exhibit 7
  • SC teachers are 6.7% of teachers in universities' own departments, against 12.0% of students. Exhibit 3
  • The SC enrolment ratio in higher education is 27.8, against 30.0 for all students. Exhibit 4
  • In higher education, the gap with all students narrowed from 3.3 points in 2019-20 to 2.2 in 2023-24. Exhibit 6
  • In 22 of 34 States and UTs, SC students are a smaller share of college students than of school students. Exhibit 8

Scheduled Caste (SC) students as a share of all students at each stage of education in India: school (pre-primary to class 12) in 2025-26, from the Ministry of Education’s Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+), and higher education, from bachelor’s degrees to the PhD, in 2023-24, from its All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE). National figures, with figures for each State and Union Territory (UT) for school and for higher education as a whole; SC students and teachers by type of university; and what households spent per student in degree courses in 2017-18, from the National Sample Survey.

of school students are SC, 2025-26
17.7%
of PhD students are SC, 2023-24
10.0%

  1. Exhibit 1

    SC students are 17.7% of school students, 15.5% of college and university students, 10.0% of PhD students and 8.9% of those who completed a PhD

    Scheduled Caste students as a share of all students at each stage, %, India. School 2025-26; higher education 2023-24.

    15%: reserved at admission, central institutions16.6%: SC share of population, Census 2011

    1. School, pre-primary to class 12 (2025-26)17.7%
    2. College and university, all levels (2023-24)15.5%
    3. PhD students (2023-24)10.0%
    4. PhDs completed (2023-24)8.9%

    Note: The stages are different years and different counts, so they show where SC students are, not how one group of students moved through. School figures are for 2025-26 and higher-education figures for 2023-24, two years apart. The 15% line is the share of seats reserved for SCs at admission to central institutions; schools, and State and private colleges, follow other rules or none. The 16.6% is the SC share of the population in Census 2011, the latest count; it is fifteen years old and will change with Census 2027.

    Source: Ministry of Education, UDISE+ 2025-26 (existing structure), Table 2.4; Source: Ministry of Education, AISHE 2023-24 Final Report, Tables 45, 11 and 35. Analysis by The Dalit Project, as on 12 Oct 2026.

  2. Exhibit 2

    SC students are 13.2% of students in central universities and 13.4% in Institutes of National Importance, below the 15% of seats reserved for them at admission

    Scheduled Caste students as a share of all students in the teaching departments of each type of university, %, India, 2023-24, in AISHE's order. In the accent colour, the types the Act names: universities set up by a Central Act and Institutes of National Importance.

    15%: reserved at admission, central institutions16.6%: SC share of population, Census 2011

    1. Central universities13.2%
    2. Central open university12.8%
    3. Institutes of National Importance13.4%
    4. State public universities14.8%
    5. State open universities16.0%
    6. State private universities7.4%
    7. Institutes under a State Act16.1%
    8. Deemed universities, government12.0%
    9. Deemed universities, government-aided11.6%
    10. Deemed universities, private5.6%
    11. All universities12.0%

    Note: The 15% applies to the seats admitted each year in each course; these are all students enrolled, across every year and course, so the two are not the same measure. Section 4 of the Act leaves out minority institutions, a scheduled list of research institutions and some highly specialised courses. Colleges affiliated to universities are not included. The 16.6% is the SC share of the population in Census 2011, the latest count; it is fifteen years old and will change with Census 2027.

    Source: Ministry of Education, AISHE 2023-24 Final Report, Table 27(a); teaching departments, constituent units and off-campus centres, institutions that responded. Analysis by The Dalit Project, as on 12 Oct 2026.

  3. Exhibit 3

    SC people are 13.4% of students and 8.3% of teachers in Institutes of National Importance, and 13.2% and 11.1% in central universities

    Scheduled Castes as a share of students and of teachers in the teaching departments of each type of university, %, India, 2023-24, in AISHE's order.

    Type of universitySC share of studentsSC share of teachersTeachers
    Central universities13.2%11.1%16,062
    Central open university12.8%12.8%304
    Institutes of National Importance13.4%8.3%23,440
    State public universities14.8%11.7%66,942
    State open universities16.0%15.9%1,052
    State private universities7.4%4.0%119,573
    Institutes under a State Act16.1%8.4%1,481
    Deemed universities, government12.0%6.3%4,880
    Deemed universities, government-aided11.6%7.8%2,372
    Deemed universities, private5.6%4.6%63,001
    All universities12.0%6.7%299,107

    Note: The SC share of teachers is lower than the SC share of students in nine of the ten types. Teachers are counted at every post, from assistant professor to professor; AISHE does not split them by post and social group by type of university. Colleges affiliated to universities are not included.

    Source: Ministry of Education, AISHE 2023-24 Final Report, Tables 27(a) and 30(a); teaching departments, constituent units and off-campus centres, institutions that responded. Analysis by The Dalit Project, as on 12 Oct 2026.

  4. Exhibit 4

    The SC enrolment ratio in higher education is 27.8, against 30.0 for all students

    Gross enrolment ratio (students enrolled at a level, of any age, per 100 people of the age for that level), SC and all students, India. School levels 2025-26; higher education 2023-24.

    LevelYearSC studentsAll studentsSC minus all, points
    Primary (classes 1 to 5)2025-2688.789.4-0.7
    Upper primary (classes 6 to 8)2025-2694.789.65.1
    Secondary (classes 9 and 10)2025-2686.281.54.7
    Higher secondary (classes 11 and 12)2025-2662.961.71.2
    Higher education (ages 18 to 23)2023-2427.830.0-2.2

    Note: School figures are for 2025-26 and higher-education figures for 2023-24, two years apart. A ratio is enrolment divided by an estimate of the population of that age, so it can pass 100 where students older or younger than the age band are enrolled. The higher-education ratio rests on population projections from Census 2011, as the AISHE report says; UDISE+ uses projections from the 2020 report of the Expert Group on Population Projection.

    Source: Ministry of Education, UDISE+ 2025-26 (existing structure), Tables 6.1 and 6.2; Source: Ministry of Education, AISHE 2023-24 Final Report, Table 47. Analysis by The Dalit Project, as on 12 Oct 2026.

  5. Exhibit 5

    In arts, science and commerce, the SC share falls from bachelor's to master's: 19.9% to 16.9% in arts, 15.9% to 13.4% in science and 12.8% to 11.7% in commerce. In the PhD it is 10.0%, and across all programmes 15.5% of students and 14.3% of those who passed out

    Students in each programme, SC students among them, and the SC share of students and of those who passed out, India, 2023-24. The three bachelor's programmes with the most students, the master's in the same field, the PhD, and all programmes.

    ProgrammeStudentsSC studentsSC share of studentsSC share of those who passed out
    B.A. (Bachelor of Arts)10,936,2062,179,14219.9%18.3%
    M.A. (Master of Arts)2,255,990381,08416.9%15.8%
    B.Sc. (Bachelor of Science)4,698,197748,22815.9%14.3%
    M.Sc. (Master of Science)992,899132,80213.4%12.1%
    B.Com. (Bachelor of Commerce)3,876,995497,99012.8%11.3%
    M.Com. (Master of Commerce)446,17552,09211.7%10.9%
    Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)334,76433,63710.0%8.9%
    All programmes44,270,8486,854,03715.5%14.3%

    Note: Counts are from the institutions that responded to AISHE, so they are lower than the estimated totals. Honours programmes (B.A. (Hons) and others) and combined degrees are separate programmes in the tables and are not added in. Master's students are not the same people as the bachelor's students two or three years earlier. Those who passed out in a year mostly enrolled one to five years before it, so the two shares are not the same students.

    Source: Ministry of Education, AISHE 2023-24 Final Report, Table 11 (enrolment) and Table 35 (out-turn); institutions that responded. Analysis by The Dalit Project, as on 12 Oct 2026.

  6. Exhibit 6

    The SC enrolment ratio in higher education rose from 22.3 in 2019-20 to 27.8 in 2023-24, and the gap with all students narrowed from 3.3 to 2.2 points

    Gross enrolment ratio in higher education (students per 100 people aged 18 to 23), SC and all students, India, 2019-20 to 2023-24.

    Note: The ratios rest on population projections from Census 2011, as the AISHE report says, so they will change once Census 2027 counts are out.

    Source: Ministry of Education, AISHE 2023-24 Final Report, Table 47. Analysis by The Dalit Project, as on 12 Oct 2026.

  7. Exhibit 7

    In 2017-18, households spent ₹45,849 (about US$700) a year on an SC student in a technical or professional degree course, against ₹63,495 (about US$980) for all students

    Average spending on the basic course per student in the academic year, by course and level, SC and all students, ₹, India, rural and urban, 2017-18.

    CourseLevelSC students, ₹All students, ₹
    GeneralGraduate11,94914,264
    GeneralPost-graduate and above18,82518,110
    Technical or professionalGraduate45,84963,495
    Technical or professionalPost-graduate and above62,67266,824

    Note: Spending by the household, other households and non-government bodies on fees, books, stationery, uniform, transport, private coaching and the like. Anything the government pays for, such as free tuition, is counted as nothing, so a lower figure can mean a fee waiver or a free place as well as less money spent; the survey does not separate the two. Dollar figures are at 2017-18 rates. Social group is the household head’s, as the household states it. A sample survey, given for India only. In a general degree course the figures were ₹11,949 (about US$180) for SC students and ₹14,264 (about US$220) for all students.

    Source: Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, NSS Report No. 585, 75th round, July 2017 to June 2018, Tables (67) and (70), Rural+Urban, Persons. Analysis by The Dalit Project, as on 12 Oct 2026.

  8. Exhibit 8

    In 22 of 34 States and UTs, SC students are a smaller share of college students than of school students; the widest gap is in Punjab, 35.7% to 25.4%

    SC students as a share of school students (pre-primary to class 12, 2025-26) and of higher-education students (2023-24), %, by State and UT, widest gap first.

    1. PunjabSchoolCollege and university35.7% 25.4%
    2. West Bengal24.6% 18.9%
    3. Puducherry18.3% 12.8%
    4. Uttarakhand19.3% 14.7%
    5. Himachal Pradesh25.6% 21.3%
    6. Haryana20.7% 16.7%
    7. Bihar18.1% 14.3%
    8. Karnataka17.7% 13.9%
    9. Uttar Pradesh22.7% 19.0%
    10. Tamil Nadu22.1% 18.6%
    11. Jharkhand12.3% 9.4%
    12. Andhra Pradesh19.6% 17.3%
    13. Sikkim8.2% 5.9%
    14. Madhya Pradesh17.0% 14.9%
    15. Rajasthan19.6% 17.6%
    16. Jammu and Kashmir8.2% 6.4%
    17. Kerala8.5% 6.9%
    18. Chhattisgarh14.5% 13.7%
    19. Nagaland1.8% 1.1%
    20. Odisha18.5% 17.8%
    21. Tripura18.2% 18.0%
    22. Arunachal Pradesh1.8% 1.7%
    23. Mizoram0.6% 0.8%
    24. Maharashtra12.2% 12.4%
    25. Goa2.0% 2.3%
    26. Andaman and Nicobar Islands0.7% 1.0%
    27. Telangana15.2% 15.9%
    28. Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu2.6% 4.2%
    29. Assam7.4% 9.3%
    30. Manipur4.9% 6.9%
    31. Meghalaya1.2% 3.2%
    32. Gujarat6.3% 9.5%
    33. Delhi9.3% 13.6%
    34. Chandigarh8.2% 14.4%
    35. Ladakh0.3% not given
    36. Lakshadweep0.3% under 5 SC students

    Note: Students study across State lines, so a State’s college students are not all from that State. Where AISHE counts fewer than 5 SC students in higher education the cell shows “<5” and no share; where its cell is blank, “not given”. School figures are for 2025-26, from UDISE+, which counts every enrolled student from individual student records. Higher-education figures are for 2023-24, two years earlier, from AISHE; its totals are estimates for all institutions, while its programme tables count only the institutions that responded.

    Source: Ministry of Education, UDISE+ 2025-26 (existing structure), Table 2.4; Source: Ministry of Education, AISHE 2023-24 Final Report, Table 14. Analysis by The Dalit Project, as on 12 Oct 2026.

What’s next

The next update

We will update these figures on release of AISHE 2024-25 and UDISE+ 2026-27. This is version 3.

What the data can’t tell us yet

How many SC students who start school reach a degree or a PhD: no published table follows the same students, so the stages are snapshots of different years and different counts.

What you can do

  • Cite this piece.
  • Ask the Ministry of Education (Department of School Education and Literacy) for SC dropout rates by school level for India, which UDISE+ Table 6.13 gives for all students only, under the Right to Information Act: rtionline.gov.in.
  • Found an error? Tell us how to correct it.

About this data

What this shows
The share of students who are SC at each stage from school to PhD, and how SC enrolment ratios compare with all students at each level, in 2025-26 (school) and 2023-24 (higher education).
Source
Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education, Government of India; Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Government of India; Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India, Ministry of Home Affairs; National Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India, 4 documents, Tables 2.4, 6.1 and 6.2, Tables 11, 14, 27(a), 30(a), 35, 45 and 47, Proportion of SC/ST Population, India – 2001, 2011 and Tables (67) and (70). Analysis by The Dalit Project, as on 12 Oct 2026. Every source
What it does not show
How many SC students who start school reach a degree or a PhD: no published table follows the same students, so the stages are snapshots of different years and different counts.
Last updated
12 Oct 2026 · Next expected update: on release of AISHE 2024-25 and UDISE+ 2026-27
Corrections
Changelog (version 3) · Corrections policy

Sources, caveats and definitions