From 50 remote villages in Rajasthan to 30,000 across India, Educate Girls has grown into a movement transforming millions of lives, and has become the first Indian NGO to win the Ramon Magsaysay Award — often called Asia’s Nobel Prize.
When Safeena Husain returned from San Francisco in 2007, she founded Educate Girls in Rajasthan to fight gender gaps, early marriage, and poverty, keeping girls out of school.
Local volunteers, called “preraks,” went door-to-door, finding out-of-school girls, enrolling them, and ensuring they stayed in classrooms through remedial learning and community support.
Over time, Educate Girls reached 2.4 million children with over 90% retention, proving that focused, community-driven solutions can break cycles of illiteracy.
In 2015, they launched the world’s first Development Impact Bond in education—a pay-for-performance model that links funding to measurable enrollment and learning outcomes. The programme expanded to Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, showing how local change can grow into systemic transformation.
The Pragati programme helps adolescent girls and young women return to learning through open schooling. It grew from 300 learners to over 31,500 girls aged 15–29, giving them the chance to earn Class 10 and 12 credentials.
This year, Educate Girls made history as the first Indian NGO to win the Ramon Magsaysay Award, shining a global spotlight on the education movement. While India has produced over 50 Ramon Magsaysay laureates, Educate Girls is the first NGO, marking a historic milestone.
By 2035, the NGO aims to impact 10 million lives, expand to new regions like Northeast India, and share their blueprint internationally. From a single girl in a remote village to millions of lives transformed, Educate Girls proves that change begins one girl at a time.