Educate Girls Founder Safeena Husain Named TIME Women of the Year 2026

In a powerful moment for India’s education and social impact sector, Safeena Husain, founder of the nonprofit Educate Girls, has been named among TIME magazine’s Women of the Year 2026. The prestigious list celebrates 16 global leaders working to create a more equitable world—and Husain’s inclusion shines an international spotlight on a mission rooted deep in India’s rural heartlands.For Husain, the recognition is not just a personal milestone. It reflects nearly two decades of relentless work to bring out-of-school girls back into classrooms, transforming communities that once saw education for girls as a distant dream.Safeena Husain said that she was honoured and humbled to be named alongside such trailblazing leaders, adding that the recognition brought attention to India’s grassroots movement for girls’ education and highlighted the determination of girls who are working to shape their own futures.The Movement Called Educate GirlsSafeena Husain founded Educate Girls in 2007 with a bold and simple mission: ensure that no girl is denied the right to education.What began in just 50 villages in Rajasthan has grown into one of India’s most influential education movements. Today, the organisation works across more than 25,000 villages in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, mobilising communities and local volunteers to identify and enrol girls who have dropped out of school.Through innovative partnerships with governments and communities, Educate Girls has helped over two million girls return to education, a remarkable achievement in regions where poverty, gender bias and early marriage often disrupt schooling.The organisation also pioneered the world’s first Development Impact Bond in education, an innovative financing model that exceeded its target outcomes when completed in 2018.A Landmark Year of AchievementsThe TIME recognition crowns what has already been a remarkable period for Husain and her organisation.In 2025, Educate Girls became the first Indian nonprofit to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award, widely regarded as Asia’s highest honour for community leadership. The award recognised the organisation’s transformative impact in bridging gender gaps in education.Earlier, Educate Girls had also been selected as the first Asian organisation supported by the Audacious Project, a social-impact funding initiative under the aegis of TED. The ambitious goal set under the project was to educate 1.5 million out-of-school girls—a target the organisation achieved in 2025, before continuing to expand its reach.Husain also completed a Rockefeller Foundation residency, during which she wrote her book Every Last Girl: A Journey to Educate India’s Forgotten Daughters, published in January.A Mission Born from Personal ExperienceBehind Husain’s work lies a deeply personal story.She grew up facing poverty, violence and interruptions in her own education. Those early experiences shaped her understanding of what it means for a girl to be left behind.Determined to change that narrative, Husain became the first in her family to study overseas and later worked for a decade in the nonprofit sector in San Francisco. But her calling eventually brought her back to India.“From day one till today, our focus has been on the out-of-school girl,” she has said. “That’s my lived experience. I know what it feels like to be left behind.”The Road Ahead: Reaching Every Last GirlDespite the progress, the challenge remains enormous.According to global education estimates, 133 million girls worldwide are still out of school. In India alone, millions continue to face barriers ranging from poverty to social norms.Husain’s vision is ambitious yet clear. By 2035, Educate Girls aims to reach 10 million students, ensuring that every girl has access to education and the power to shape her own future.“Every girl wants to go to school,” Husain often says. “No girl dreams of being left behind.”As the world celebrates her inclusion in TIME Women of the Year 2026, Safeena Husain’s story stands as a reminder that real change often begins quietly—in classrooms, villages and communities where a single educated girl can rewrite the destiny of generations.