R.K. Singh Union Minister for Power, New and Renewable Energy presinting Changemaker award of the Year 2023 to Changemaker- Social Transformation Safeena Husain, Founder, Educate Girls, in New Delhi.
| Photo Credit:
KAMAL NARANG
Safeena Husain, a businessline Changemaker Award winner, has been named among TIME magazine’s Women of the Year 2026 — an honour that recognises 16 global leaders working to build a more equitable world.
In 2025, Educate Girls, the non-profit organisation she founded, became the first Indian organisation to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award, widely regarded as Asia’s highest honour for community leadership.
On receiving the TIME magazine recognition, Safeena Husain said, ‘I am honoured and humbled to be named alongside such trailblazing leaders. This recognition brings much-needed attention to India’s grassroots movement for girls’ education and spotlights our girls and their grit, resilience and determination to shape their futures. It strengthens our resolve to reach 10 million more by 2035 and ensure that every last girl has voice, choice and agency.’
Safeena’s work began in 50 villages of Rajasthan in 2007 to provide access to quality education to school dropout girls and has since spread to over 25,000 villages also in MP and UP
Published on March 2, 2026
