TED2019
Safeena Husain: A bold plan to empower 1.6 million out-of-school girls in India
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"Girls' education is the closest thing we have to a silver bullet to help solve some of the world's most difficult problems," says social entrepreneur Safeena Husain. In a visionary talk, she shares her plan to enroll a staggering 1.6 million girls in school over the next five years -- combining advanced analytics with door-to-door community engagement to create new educational pathways for girls in India. (This ambitious plan is part of the Audacious Project, TED's initiative to inspire and fund global change.)
Safeena Husain - Social entrepreneur
Safeena Husain has worked extensively with rural and urban underserved communities in South America, Africa and Asia. After returning to India, she chose the agenda closest to her heart -- girls' education -- and founded Educate Girls. Full bio
Safeena Husain has worked extensively with rural and urban underserved communities in South America, Africa and Asia. After returning to India, she chose the agenda closest to her heart -- girls' education -- and founded Educate Girls. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
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The world today has many problems.
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And they're all very complicated
and interconnected and difficult.
and interconnected and difficult.
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But there is something we can do.
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I believe
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that girls' education is the closest thing
we have to a silver bullet
we have to a silver bullet
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to help solve some of the world's
most difficult problems.
most difficult problems.
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But you don't have to take my word for it.
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The World Bank says
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that girls' education
is one of the best investments
is one of the best investments
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that a country can make.
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It helps to positively impact
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nine of the 17 Sustainable
Development Goals.
Development Goals.
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Everything from health,
nutrition, employment --
nutrition, employment --
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all of these are positively impacted
when girls are educated.
when girls are educated.
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Additionally, climate scientists
have recently rated girls' education
have recently rated girls' education
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at number six out of 80 actions
to reverse global warming.
to reverse global warming.
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At number six, it's rated higher
than solar panels and electric cars.
than solar panels and electric cars.
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And that's because
when girls are educated,
when girls are educated,
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they have smaller families,
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and the resulting reduction in population
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reduces carbon emissions significantly.
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But more than that, you know,
it's a problem we have to solve once.
it's a problem we have to solve once.
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Because an educated mother
is more than twice as likely
is more than twice as likely
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to educate her children.
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Which means that by doing it once,
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we can close the gender
and literacy gap forever.
and literacy gap forever.
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I work in India,
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which has made incredible progress
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in bringing elementary education for all.
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However, we still have
four million out-of-school girls,
four million out-of-school girls,
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one of the highest in the world.
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And girls are out of school
because of, obviously poverty,
because of, obviously poverty,
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social, cultural factors.
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But there's also this
underlying factor of mindset.
underlying factor of mindset.
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I have met a girl
whose name was Naraaz Nath.
whose name was Naraaz Nath.
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Naaraaz means angry.
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And when I asked her,
"Why is your name 'angry'?"
"Why is your name 'angry'?"
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she said, "Because everybody
was so angry when a girl was born."
was so angry when a girl was born."
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Another girl called Antim Bala,
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which means the last girl.
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Because everybody hoped
that would be the last girl to be born.
that would be the last girl to be born.
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A girl called Aachuki.
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It means somebody who has arrived.
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Not wanted, but arrived.
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And it is this mindset
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that keeps girls from school
or completing their education.
or completing their education.
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It's this belief that a goat is an asset
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and a girl is a liability.
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My organization Educate Girls
works to change this.
works to change this.
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And we work in some
of the most difficult, rural,
of the most difficult, rural,
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remote and tribal villages.
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And how do we do it?
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We first and foremost find
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young, passionate, educated youth
from the same villages.
from the same villages.
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Both men and women.
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And we call them Team Balika,
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balika just means the girl child,
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so this is a team that we are creating
for the girl child.
for the girl child.
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And so once we recruit
our community volunteers,
our community volunteers,
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we train them, we mentor them,
we hand-hold them.
we hand-hold them.
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That's when our work starts.
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And the first piece we do
is about identifying every single girl
is about identifying every single girl
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who's not going to school.
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But the way we do it
is a little different and high-tech,
is a little different and high-tech,
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at least in my view.
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Each of our frontline staff
have a smartphone.
have a smartphone.
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It has its own Educate Girls app.
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And this app has everything
that our team needs.
that our team needs.
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It has digital maps of where
they're going to be conducting the survey,
they're going to be conducting the survey,
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it has the survey in it,
all the questions,
all the questions,
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little guides on how best
to conduct the survey,
to conduct the survey,
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so that the data that comes to us
is in real time and is of good quality.
is in real time and is of good quality.
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So armed with this,
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our teams and our volunteers
go door-to-door
go door-to-door
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to every single household
to find every single girl
to find every single girl
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who may either we never enrolled
or dropped out of school.
or dropped out of school.
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And because we have this data
and technology piece,
and technology piece,
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very quickly we can figure out
who the girls are and where they are.
who the girls are and where they are.
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Because each of our
villages are geotagged,
villages are geotagged,
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and we can actually
build that information out
build that information out
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very, very quickly.
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And so once we know where the girls are,
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we actually start the process
of bringing them back into school.
of bringing them back into school.
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And that actually is just
our community mobilization process,
our community mobilization process,
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it starts with village meetings,
neighborhood meetings,
neighborhood meetings,
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and as you see, individual counseling
of parents and families,
of parents and families,
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to be able to bring the girls
back into school.
back into school.
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And this can take anything
from a few weeks to a few months.
from a few weeks to a few months.
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And once we bring the girls
into the school system,
into the school system,
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we also work with the schools
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to make sure that schools
have all the basic infrastructure
have all the basic infrastructure
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so that the girls will be able to stay.
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And this would include
a separate toilet for girls,
a separate toilet for girls,
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drinking water,
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things that will help them to be retained.
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But all of this would be useless
if our children weren't learning.
if our children weren't learning.
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So we actually run a learning program.
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And this is a supplementary
learning program,
learning program,
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and it's very, very important,
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because most of our children
are first-generation learners.
are first-generation learners.
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That means there's nobody at home
to help them with homework,
to help them with homework,
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there's nobody who can support
their education.
their education.
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Their parents can't read and write.
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So it's really, really key
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that we do the support
of the learning in the classrooms.
of the learning in the classrooms.
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So this is essentially our model,
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in terms of finding,
bringing the girls in,
bringing the girls in,
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making sure that
they're staying and learning.
they're staying and learning.
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And we know that our model works.
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And we know this because
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a most recent randomized
control evaluation
control evaluation
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confirms its efficacy.
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Our evaluator found
that over a three-year period
that over a three-year period
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Educate Girls was able to bring back
92 percent of all out-of-school girls
92 percent of all out-of-school girls
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back into school.
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(Applause)
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And in terms of learning,
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our children's learning
went up significantly
went up significantly
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as compared to control schools.
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So much so, that it was
like an additional year of schooling
like an additional year of schooling
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for the average student.
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And that's enormous,
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when you think about a tribal child
who's entering the school system
who's entering the school system
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for the first time.
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So here we have a model that works;
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we know it's scalable,
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because we are already functioning
at 13,000 villages.
at 13,000 villages.
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We know it's smart,
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because of the use of data and technology.
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We know that it's
sustainable and systemic,
sustainable and systemic,
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because we work in partnership
with the community,
with the community,
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it's actually led by the community.
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And we work in partnership
with the government,
with the government,
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so there's no creation
of a parallel delivery system.
of a parallel delivery system.
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And so because we have
this innovative partnership
this innovative partnership
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with the community,
the government, this smart model,
the government, this smart model,
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we have this big, audacious dream today.
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And that is to solve
a full 40 percent of the problem
a full 40 percent of the problem
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of out-of-school girls in India
in the next five years.
in the next five years.
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(Applause)
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And you're thinking, that's a little ...
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You know, how am I even thinking
about doing that,
about doing that,
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because India is not a small place,
it's a huge country.
it's a huge country.
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It's a country of over a billion people.
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We have 650,000 villages.
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How is it that I'm standing here,
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saying that one small organization
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is going to solve a full
40 percent of the problem?
40 percent of the problem?
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And that's because we have a key insight.
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And that is,
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because of our entire approach,
with data and with technology,
with data and with technology,
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that five percent of villages in India
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have 40 percent
of the out-of-school girls.
of the out-of-school girls.
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And this is a big,
big piece of the puzzle.
big piece of the puzzle.
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Which means, I don't have to work
across the entire country.
across the entire country.
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I have to work in those
five percent of the villages,
five percent of the villages,
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about 35,000 villages,
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to actually be able to solve
a large piece of the problem.
a large piece of the problem.
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And that's really key,
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because these villages
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not only have high burden
of out-of-school girls,
of out-of-school girls,
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but also a lot of
related indicators, right,
related indicators, right,
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like malnutrition, stunting,
poverty, infant mortality,
poverty, infant mortality,
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child marriage.
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So by working and focusing here,
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you can actually create
a large multiplier effect
a large multiplier effect
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across all of these indicators.
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And it would mean
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that we would be able to bring back
1.6 million girls back into school.
1.6 million girls back into school.
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(Applause)
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I have to say, I have been
doing this for over a decade,
doing this for over a decade,
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and I have never met a girl
who said to me,
who said to me,
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you know, "I want to stay at home,"
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"I want to graze the cattle,"
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"I want to look after the siblings,"
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"I want to be a child bride."
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Every single girl I meet
wants to go to school.
wants to go to school.
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And that's what we really want to do.
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We want to be able to fulfill
those 1.6 million dreams.
those 1.6 million dreams.
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And it doesn't take much.
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To find and enroll a girl
with our model is about 20 dollars.
with our model is about 20 dollars.
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To make sure that she is learning
and providing a learning program,
and providing a learning program,
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it's another 40 dollars.
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But today is the time to do it.
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Because she is truly
the biggest asset we have.
the biggest asset we have.
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I am Safeena Husain, and I educate girls.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Safeena Husain - Social entrepreneurSafeena Husain has worked extensively with rural and urban underserved communities in South America, Africa and Asia. After returning to India, she chose the agenda closest to her heart -- girls' education -- and founded Educate Girls.
Why you should listen
Safeena Husain is the Founder and Executive Director of Educate Girls, and she's well acquainted with the problem she's trying to solve. As a girl in Delhi, she found refuge and opportunity in her studies -- and while she later dropped out of school, a loving parent helped her to return to her education and go on to graduate from the London School of Economics. After working at a startup in Silicon Valley, Husain felt called to social impact. She led the US-based organization Child Family Health International for seven years, and in 2004, returned to India to take on the issue closest to her heart. In 2007, she launched Educate Girls in Rajasthan, a region of India where women and girls face some of the greatest disparities in the country. She has shepherded the organization through dramatic growth.
Safeena Husain | Speaker | TED.com