Changemakers

Narinder Singh spent 19 years transforming a 3-room, 174-student school in Punjab into a thriving campus of 800 children — now honoured with a National Teachers’ Award.

In 2007, Safeena Husain began with 50 Rajasthan villages. Today, Educate Girls has enrolled 1.4M girls in 30,000 villages and is the first Indian NGO to win Magsaysay.

Sindhutai’s desire to ensure that no child suffered from a lack of love was born out of her story of being abandoned and left to die when she was pregnant. She became a mother to thousands of orphans.

In 1979, Satya Rani Chadha’s pregnant daughter was burnt alive over dowry. Denied justice, she fought 34 years, reshaping India’s laws and giving women a voice.

Bob and Tanya came to Kodaikanal for a trip but stayed 30 years to revive Tamil Nadu’s rare shola forests, proving ordinary people can save ecosystems.

Freedom lives in planting forests, protecting wildlife, educating girls, lighting villages, saving lives — meet 7 Indians shaping a stronger, kinder India.

At 13, Surjeet Lodhi rallied children in Vidisha to fight alcohol abuse and child labour. By 17, he helped restore classrooms and hope across villages.

As student suicides rise in Kota, IAS Ravindra Goswami and ASP Chandrasheel Thakur are bringing empathy, systems reform, and hope—showing students that life matters more than any exam.

In Punjab’s Manak Khana, women gained recognition through a powerful nameplate initiative that is changing the way villages see gender roles.

What was once a garbage dump and hub for illegal activity is now a blooming school campus in Bihar. With no government help, headmaster Baijnath Kumar led a green revolution — one sapling at a time.