Nothing Much- The girls who dropout from school

Since 2022, nearly half of India’s 84.9 lakh school dropouts have been girls.  We followed them home. Kajal’s wedding was on April 20, 2025. She was eighteen. When Khabar Lahariya reporter Suman visited her at her marital home in Shiwala, a village in Patna district, and asked what she did with her days, Kajal’s first answer was “nothing”. “And the household work?” Suman asked. Kajal considered. “Cooking, cleaning. But nothing much.” Kajal had studied until Class 10 at a government school in Nadva village of Bihar. She had sat for the board examination. But after the results were delayed, she did not enroll in a new school. Then 2024 passed without her returning to school. Then she got married. Her