Abstract : The analysis of Census data from 2001 and 2011 reveals that Uttar Pradesh (UP), a state critical to India's overall demographic profile, underwent a period of rapid and significant transformation in female educational access. The state’s overall female literacy rate surged from 42.22% in 2001 to 57.18% in 2011.¹ This exponential growth rate surpassed the national average growth rate, leading to a substantial, though incomplete, narrowing of the chronic male-female literacy disparity.² However, this macro-level success masks critical underlying structural challenges, including a deeply entrenched rural-urban divide, an anomalous decline in measured urban female literacy, and a systemic failure in educational retention, characterized by severe drop-off rates at the secondary and higher education levels.³ Future policy must therefore pivot from focusing on enrollment to addressing retention and pipeline efficiency.