According to the household survey conducted by States/UTs and reported in their Annual Work Plan and Budget (AWP&B) submitted to this Ministry, the number of Out-of-School Children has considerably declined to 17.24 lakh in 2014.
The Government of India had earlier commissioned two independent surveys to estimate the number of out-of-school children in the country in 2005 and 2009 which shows a decline in the number of out of school children from 134.6 lakh in 2005 to 81.5 lakh in 2009.
NCERT undertook a project on “Development of Guidelines for Special Training of Out-of-School Children under RTE Act” during 2011-12. The prime purpose of these Guidelines is to facilitate the state level functionaries working in this area by providing suggestive strategies and understanding on pedagogical processes required for mainstreaming out-of-school children.