On September 25, 2024, Rise Up Leader and male ally Ashwani Tiwari from India received the Ban Ki-moon Award for Women’s Empowerment, a prestigious honor presented by Asia Initiatives to individuals who have made significant contributions to women’s rights. Ashwani received the award for his dedication and contributions to advancing STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and entrepreneurship education for girls in India as the founder of Maker Labs.
Maker Labs is an initiative dedicated to providing accessible STEM education to young learners, regardless of gender, geography, or socioeconomic background. With support from Rise Up, Ashwani has expanded the Maker Labs program to 21 schools in India and has the goal of serving more than 150,000 girls from marginalized backgrounds with STEM education, coaching, and assistance to strengthen their leadership potential. He is one of hundreds of male allies in the Rise Up global network.
You can hear directly from Ashwani in this short video.
Ashwani started his journey with Rise Up in 2021. He credits his experience as a Rise Up Leader with helping him learn how to drive change within the existing ecosystem through political mapping and stakeholder management. Ashwani also gained a new perspective when it came to gender equity and justice.
“Rise Up’s Leadership Accelerator helped me to break the stereotypes involving girls in STEM education,” he said “I witnessed myself and my organization striving towards gender transformative action.”
Breaking Down Gender Barriers
As a twelve-year-old boy growing up in Varanasi, a city along the Ganges River in northern India, Ashwani discovered a love for tinkering. He and his friends would collect waste that came from the city, repurpose it, and sell it for pocket money. Ashwani has always had a passion for science, and a conviction that STEM education can expand career opportunities and motivate the next generation to make meaningful contributions to society.
His work focuses on rural and tribal regions of India, where representation in STEM fields is only 0.1%, with women from these areas even more underrepresented, according to data Ashwani has collected from local villages. Ashwani sees this as a significant opportunity to unlock the untapped economic potential of these communities, fostering innovation and growth in the country. Through Maker Labs, he is working to bridge the education gap and inspire girls to become STEM leaders.
Ashwani actively involves girls’ families in their educational journeys to challenge stereotypes about women’s roles in the community, which often prevent girls from furthering their education. He credits this strategy to the Rise Up training he received in 2021. With rising inflation and economic hardships, families are increasingly seeing the value of their daughters’ education and career opportunities.
How Girls’ Innovations Are Transforming Their Communities
In addition to the financial benefits that girls’ education brings to families, their involvement in STEM is also generating significant advantages for the broader community, Ashwani shared. He believes that girls’ empathetic perspectives lead to innovative solutions that enhance lives and foster positive economic growth. He shared the example of Maker Labs participant Manisha, who saw her father come home after a long day of carrying a heavy fertilizer machine on his back to tend to the crops. Moved by his pain, she designed a new fertilizer machine that not only eased her father’s burden but also doubled the income of local farmers.
Another girl in Maker Labs, Harshita, invented glasses for truck drivers that automatically shut off the engine if the driver falls asleep. In response to frequent accidents in their community caused by a blind spot on a curve, girls Ekta, Chanchal and Siddhi created a sensor to alert drivers when a car is approaching from the opposite direction. Through their innovations, these girls are improving quality of life, saving lives, and driving economic prosperity in their communities.
After eight years of supporting girls in their STEM journeys, Ashwani has realized that his dream no longer belongs to just him and he is excited to share his leadership with the girls in Maker Labs. Together, Ashwani and the girls he is supporting are forging the next generation of innovative leaders in India.