Daya Shankar Tripathi’s report
Educate Girls, which has been awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2025, celebrated its 18th Foundation Day on 25 March 2026 in Lucknow. The award is widely considered to be the Nobel Prize of Asia. This important event was attended by over 300 participants, including Team Balika volunteers, field staff, senior government officials, civil society partners and education sector stakeholders. The occasion reflected on the journey of the organization and reiterated its commitment towards girl child education across India. Brajesh Pathak, Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, delivered the keynote address and underlined the government’s continuous efforts to ensure quality education and empowerment for every girl child in the state.
He said, “From nationwide initiatives like Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao to sustained efforts through partners like Educate Girls in Uttar Pradesh, we are ensuring that girl children get quality education. The year 2017 has seen sweeping changes in basic, secondary and higher education in the state, including better infrastructure, increased resources and focused efforts to reduce the dropout rate. Government schemes like Kayakalp Yojana and expansion of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas have helped. It has played an important role in bringing girls back to school and continuing their education. Today most of the girls are in classes and the dropout rate is continuously decreasing.
Shri Pathak said that through Mission Shakti, we are committed to enable the girl child to live a life with dignity, opportunity and equality. We stand firmly together with Educate Girls in every effort to advance girl child education and empowerment.” Vishnu Kant Pandey, Additional State Project Director, Department of Secondary Education, Uttar Pradesh, underlined the progress achieved through community participation and re-integration efforts across the state.
He said, “Through sustained efforts, we have been successful in identifying girls in about 23 districts and connecting them to mainstream education, as well as helping in retaining at-risk students in school. Under the Vidya programme, Team Girl Volunteers are going from village to village to reconnect out-of-school girls with education and ensuring continuity through open schooling for girls who have dropped out of school due to social or economic reasons.
Reintegrating adolescent girls into the mainstream remains a complex challenge, but Educate Girls has played a vital role in this through strong community engagement and partnerships. Their on-the-ground experiences have strengthened our planning and implementation, helping to ensure that no girl child is left behind. “We deeply value this collaboration and the continued commitment of Educate Girls, Team Balika and all partners to advance girls’ education.”
Gayatri Nair Lobo, CEO of Educate Girls, highlighted the organization’s journey from a grassroots initiative to a transformative force at the national level and attributed the 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Award to the collective courage of its frontline volunteers and field teams. She said, “Educate Girls shows how strong partnerships can drive meaningful change at scale.
Through our remedial learning programs like Gyan Ka Pitara, we reach the most disadvantaged girls, helping them get back into school and keep them on track to learn. The Ramon Magsaysay Award, considered Asia’s highest honour, recognizes the collective efforts of our Team Girl volunteers, field teams and partners and reflects the spirit of service, integrity and grassroots leadership that drives our work. . We also express our deep gratitude to the Government of Uttar Pradesh for their continued support in our work.”
Learner Halima Saadia, associated with Pragati Team of Bihar, was also present in this program. The Team Balika panel discussion, moderated by Operations Director Vikram Singh Solanki, showcased the impact of over 55,000 volunteers who go door-to-door to drive change in communities and tackle challenges such as child marriage, household responsibilities and social norms that often lead to girls dropping out of school.
Among these, Sonam from Badaun shared that her journey with Educate Girls over the last two years has made her more confident and helped her understand the transformative power of education. Pranchal Gupta of Sonbhadra said that connecting dropout children with education gives them immense happiness and purpose. Ankit Maurya shares his efforts to raise awareness in his village, where he inspires families to prioritize education, especially girls’ education, despite social and economic challenges. Nirmala Yadav’s story was especially inspiring. Married at an early age and facing opposition, she continued her education even as her books were destroyed, yet she did not give up and completed her BA and MSW, making her an inspiration to many.
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