Educate Girls becomes first Indian organisation to receive Ramon Magsaysay Award

Non-profit Educate Girls has become the first Indian organisation to receive the 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Award, Asia’s premier prize and highest honour.

Educate Girls has been recognised for “its commitment to addressing cultural stereotyping through the education of girls and young women, liberating them from the bondage of illiteracy and infusing them with skills, courage, and agency to achieve their full human potential.”

The non-profit now stands in the company of distinguished laureates such as filmmaker Satyajit Ray, singer MS Subbulakshmi, social reformer Kiran Bedi, and Vinoba Bhave, alongside global icons like Nobel Peace Prize winners the Dalai Lama and Mother Teresa, and Oscar-winning storyteller Hayao Miyazaki.

“This recognition places a global spotlight on India’s people-powered movement for girls’ education, one that began with a single girl in the remotest village and grew to reshape entire communities, challenging traditions and shifting mindsets,” said Safeena Husain, Founder, Educate Girls, reflecting on this milestone.

This Award honours our dedicated Team Balika volunteers, valued partners, passionate gender champions, and supporters, and acknowledges the millions of girls who reclaimed their right to education. As we work to reach 10 million learners in the next decade and share this blueprint beyond India, we carry forward a simple truth that when one girl is educated, she takes others with her, multiplying change across families, generations, and nations,” she added.

“This prestigious award recognises the transformational change that is possible through partnerships with the government, philanthropic institutions, corporations, and grassroots communities, working together to tackle societal and systemic barriers and promote equitable and accessible education for girls everywhere,” said Gayatri Nair Lobo, CEO, Educate Girls.

Founded in 2007, Educate Girls has spent nearly two decades breaking cycles of poverty and illiteracy by empowering girls through education.

Working across 30,000+ villages with the support of 55,000+ community volunteers, the organisation has brought more than 2 million girls back to school and supported over 2.4 million children with remedial learning.

Over the next decade, Educate Girls aims to reach 10 million learners, driving systemic change in partnership with governments while ensuring last-mile access for the girls and young women most at risk of being left behind. Its recognition underscores the global urgency of investing in girls’ education as a powerful catalyst for social and economic transformation, according to a press statement.

The other 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Awardees include Shaahina Ali from the Maldives and Fr. Flaviano Antonio L. Villanueva from the Philippines. Ali is being recognised for her fight against plastic pollution and for safeguarding fragile marine ecosystems in the Maldives. Fr. Villanueva received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for his work in restoring dignity to thousands of poor and homeless in Metropolitan Manila.

The 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Awardees will formally receive their medallions and certificates during the 67th Ramon Magsaysay Awards Presentation Ceremonies on 7 November 2025 at the Metropolitan Theatre in Manila.