How 'Collector Didi' Cut Tribal School Dropouts by 60% In Gujarat

Inside a government school room in Gujarat’s Chhota Udepur, IAS officer Gargi Jain regularly pulls up a plastic chair beside teenage students who have never sat face-to-face with an administration chief. There is no official entourage or inspection ledger—just direct conversation.

Her weekly visits have sparked 'Collector in Classroom', a mentoring programme that reaches over 750 girls across five Kanya Vidyalayas in the district. Today, the students address her as 'Collector Didi' rather than 'Madam Collector', marking a shift in how local administration connects with rural communities.

Addressing the Roots of Classroom Exit

Carved out of Vadodara in 2013, Chhota Udepur is dominated by the Rathva community. Girls here are often first-generation learners facing financial constraints, early marriage pressures, and a shortage of visible female role models.

Jain, a 2015-batch officer who took charge of the district in February 2025, structures her visits around life skills, legal awareness, and career options across medicine, engineering, and the civil services. She also shares personal safety lessons, addressing bad touch and encouraging girls to report harassment—topics rarely discussed openly in rural schools.




Direct Engagement Drives Return to School

The informal mentorship works alongside state welfare schemes to tackle high exit rates in the tribal belt.

• Total district dropouts fell from nearly 9,000 in 2025 to around 5,500 in 2026.
• Approximately 4,500 students returned to local classrooms over the same period.
• Overall school dropouts dropped by roughly 39%, while the dropout rate for girls plummeted by nearly 60%.

The administration's focus now moves beyond mere retention numbers to higher education goals, with Jain setting a target to mentor local students all the way into the administrative services.