Maharshi Vaishnav, CEO of Educate Girls, discusses the organisation's mission and initiatives to tackle the persistent issue of girls’ exclusion from education in India. Maharshi notes that despite significant progress in universalising primary and middle school education through legislative reforms like the Right to Education Act of 2009, structural barriers such as entrenched patriarchy, poverty, and limited access to social welfare programs still keep many girls out of school. Educate Girls operates in these marginalised pockets, focusing on tribal and rural communities where the challenges are most acute.
Maharshi elaborates on the organisation’s multi-faceted approach: identifying out-of-school girls, enrolling them in educational institutions, ensuring their retention, and addressing learning gaps through a proprietary remedial curriculum. This curriculum emphasises foundational literacy and numeracy in Hindi, English, and mathematics, complemented by life skills training for older girls. The innovative use of open schooling enables girls in areas lacking high school infrastructure to continue their education and achieve formal qualifications equivalent to high school graduation.
The organisation’s scale is impressive, spanning four states—Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar — covering 35,000 villages and engaging with over 55,000 schools. Educate Girls has enrolled 1.8 million previously out-of-school girls and improved learning outcomes for over 2 million children. These efforts are supported by 3,200 full-time staff and 21,000 community volunteers.
A key highlight of the discussion is the evaluation of Educate Girls’ impact through a randomised controlled trial (RCT). Conducted in collaboration with IDinsight, this RCT demonstrated substantial learning gains among participating students.
About Maharshi Vaishnav
Maharshi Vaishnav is the Chief Executive Officer at Educate Girls, leading a passionate team of over 3,000 employees and over 20,000 community volunteers with a singular mission: to ensure every girl in India can realise her right to education.
An ardent advocate of “education as the greatest enabler of equity,” Maharshi is a home-grown leader at Educate Girls. His journey is intrinsically linked with the evolution of Educate Girls, where he has been a key member for over a decade. His contributions, spanning strategy development, operational excellence, program management, Government relations, and fundraising, showcase a leader deeply connected to the organization’s DNA. Through his strategic fundraising efforts, he has secured over US$150 million in philanthropic funding for girls’ education.
As CEO of Educate Girls, Maharshi leads the exciting, bold new strategy to impact 10 million learners in India by 2035.
Previously, as the Chief Operating Officer, Maharshi steered the organisation through the challenges of COVID-19, ensuring that education reached the doorsteps of a quarter of a million learners and delivering humanitarian aid to half a million people. And as the Chief of Staff, he spearheaded the world’s first Development Impact Bond in education, which exceeded both enrolment and learning targets.
Maharshi holds graduate degrees in Public Policy and Business. He lives with his wife and son in Mumbai. A devout fan of RD Burman and Mark Knopfler, he is also trained in classical music.