Shahida Kadir

Pioneered women's education in rural India through mobile learning centers

Shahida Kadir (b. 1978) is a Bangladeshi educator who transformed literacy rates in South Asia through her Mobile Education Initiative. Starting in 1999, she designed bicycle-powered mobile libraries that reached 200+ villages in Bangladesh and West Bengal. Her program combined literacy training with health education, teaching 150,000 women to read by 2005. Kadir's 2003 report 'Literacy on Wheels' inspired India's National Literacy Mission to adopt mobile education strategies. She founded the Sabiha Foundation in 2002, which operates 150+ solar-powered learning centers. Her partnership with UNESCO led to the 'Girls' Education Charter' adopted by 12 South Asian governments. Kadir's TEDx talk 'Empowering Villages One Book at a Time' (2007) has been viewed over 2 million times. Her work contributed to Bangladesh's female literacy rate increasing from 38% to 56% between 2000-2010. Kadir's memoir Rolling Education Revolution details her journey. In 2009, she launched the Digital Literacy Asia network, bridging rural education with technology. Her innovations continue to influence UNESCO's global education strategies.