Adoptions hit record high in FY25, but share of girls slips

Boys, by contrast, have seen faster growth. Male adoptions jumped nearly 14 percent in FY25 to 1,961, compared with an 11 percent rise for girls.

Adoptions in India surged to their highest level ever in FY25, with 4,515 children finding new homes compared with 4,029 in the previous year. The number marks a steady climb after the pandemic slowdown, with both boys and girls recording multi-year peaks.

Yet, beneath the rise is a subtle but telling shift: the share of girls in adoptions has been steadily shrinking. In FY19, nearly six out of every ten children adopted were girls (59.5 percent). By FY25, that ratio had slipped to 56.6 percent, even as the absolute number of girls adopted rose to 2,554 from 2,302 in FY24.

The data suggests that while India is adopting more children than ever before, parental preference for boys may be inching up again, reversing some of the progress made in past decades.

Gender Balance in Education

The trend in adoption coincides with broader debates about gender parity in education and opportunity. Data from 2024–25 shows that India has achieved near-parity across all education stages, with the Gender Parity Index (GPI) reaching 1.1 at the secondary level, the highest among all stages.

Dropout rates have also improved significantly. At the preparatory stage, the dropout rate fell to just 2.3 percent in 2024–25 from 8.7 percent two years earlier. At the middle stage, it dropped from 8.1 percent to 3.5 percent, while at the secondary stage, the rate has fallen from 13.8 percent in 2022–23 to 8.2 percent. The progress reflects better retention of both boys and girls in schools, suggesting gains in long-term equality of access.