India, Oct. 9 -- Only 59 girls in rural India complete upper secondary education for every 100 boys, highlighting a persistent gender gap in educational attainment, according to UNESCO's report, Gender Equity in Access to Education, part of the 2026 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report.

India's overall gender parity index for upper secondary completion stands at 0.89, while the figure for rural areas is significantly lower at 0.59, the report states. A value of 1 indicates parity, meaning girls and boys complete education at the same rate. In urban India, girls have achieved parity with boys in upper secondary completion.

The report defines the completion rate as the proportion of people aged three to five years above the official g...