Adolescent girls’ health, nutrition and wellbeing in rural eastern India: a descriptive, cross-sectional community-based study

Table 2 Educational status of adolescent girls in the study area

	10–14 years		15–19 years		Total
	N	%	N	%	N	%
Literacy
Cannot read	260	14.6	347	22.5	607	18.3
Reads with difficulty	677	38.0	311	20.2	988	29.7
Reads easily	845	47.4	884	57.3	1729	52.0
School attendance
Never attended school	65	3.7	208	13.5	273	8.2
Previously attended school	136	7.6	624	40.5	760	22.9
Currently attends school or college	1581	88.7	710	46.0	2291	68.9
Reasons for never attending school (n = 273) ^a
Education not considered necessary	9	13.8	47	22.6	56	20.5
Required for work on the family farm or in the family business	18	27.7	87	41.8	105	38.5
Costs too much money	12	18.5	54	26.0	66	24.2
Required for household work	35	53.8	110	52.9	145	53.1
Reasons for dropping out of school (n = 760) ^a
Required for household work	57	41.9	228	36.5	285	37.5
Required for work on the family farm or in the family business	31	22.8	140	22.4	171	22.5
Failed exams	6	4.4	131	21.0	137	18.0
Illness or death of family member	29	21.3	99	15.9	128	16.8
Got married	2	1.5	114	18.3	116	15.3
Absence in the past 2 weeks (n = 2267)	725	46.0	274	39.6	999	44.1
Reason for absence (n = 999)
Festival	106	14.6	31	11.3	137	13.7
Strikes/bandhs	13	1.8	7	2.6	20	2.0
Required to work on family farm or in the family business	151	20.8	76	27.7	227	22.7
Required for household work	195	26.9	69	25.2	264	26.4
Death or illness of a family member	28	3.9	9	3.3	37	3.7
Personal illness	139	19.2	33	12.0	172	17.2
No reason	43	5.9	17	6.2	60	6.0
Other	50	6.9	32	11.7	82	8.2
Received vocational training in the last year	12	0.7	33	2.1	45	1.4

ISSN: 1471-2458