Proximate Determinants of School Dropout: A study on Rural West Bengal

School dropout has emerged as major hindrance to human capital formation in developing countries globally and efforts are on to stem this. The present paper attempts to identify proximate determinants of school dropout and suggest policies to tackle the problem in India context by using field data and logistic estimation technique. Results indicate gender differences in chances of drop out. Mother's education, distance of school, family size and parental occupation emerge as important factors that affect school dropout. Short and long term policy suggestions to improve chances of universalization of education have also been outlined based on results.