Anita Bhoyar

A pioneering Indian social entrepreneur who transformed rural education through innovative community-driven initiatives

Anita Bhoyar (born 1972) is a visionary social entrepreneur from Maharashtra, India, whose work in rural education has made a profound impact on marginalized communities. As founder of the Shikshaniketan Trust, she pioneered the 'Education on Wheels' program that brought mobile classrooms to over 150 villages lacking formal schools. This initiative, which uses converted buses as mobile classrooms, has provided education to over 10,000 children since its launch in 1998. Bhoyar's approach integrates local culture with modern pedagogy through her Cultural Pedagogy Model, which won the Rolex Award for Enterprise in 2003.

Her most significant innovation came in 2001 with the establishment of the first solar-powered school in drought-prone regions of Vidarbha. This model, replicated in 12 states, uses renewable energy to power digital learning tools in areas without electricity. Bhoyar's work has been documented in the UNESCO case study Education Innovations in Rural India (2010), and she has advised the Indian government on its Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan initiative. Her advocacy led to the inclusion of tribal languages in school curricula across 5 states.

In 2015, Bhoyar launched the Girls' Tech Education Program, training 3,000 rural girls in STEM fields through partnerships with tech companies. This initiative has a 92% graduation rate and 87% employment placement in tech sectors. Her 2018 TED Talk on 'Building Schools Where There Are None' has been viewed over 2 million times. Bhoyar's contributions were recognized with the Global Teacher Prize nomination in 2020 and the Padma Shri award in 2022.