The Other Wangchuks: 7 Indian Education Reformers You Never Heard About

Sonam Wangchuk is a household name today. Everyone knows him, his innovations and his legacy. But like him, there are several unsung revolutionaries who are changing Indian education with each passing day. Many of these grew up to uplift their communities, several left jobs abroad and several more fought against the odds. Do you know them? rnrnFrom Dr. Deepak Dhar to Shaheen Mistry, here is a list of 7 exceptional Indian education reformers you have never heard of, but would love to.

01Deepak Dhar

India’s first Boltzmann Medalist (2022), a Padma Bhushan Awardee (2023) and the 2026 Dirac Medal laureate – Dr. Deepak Dhar is one of India’s leading theoretical physicists. Dr. Dhar’s major academic contribution lies in bringing years of knowledge and global research experience back to India. An MSc from IIT Kanpur & a PhD from California Institute of Technology, he today guides students at ICTS-TIFR Bengaluru.

02Dr. Shiva Balak Misra

You probably know about Neelesh Misra – India’s beloved storyteller and lyricist. Dr. Shiva Balak Misra is his father. A geologist who discovered fossil assemblages dating to roughly 565 million years ago in Mistaken Point (Newfoundland). An academic who returned from Canada to start the Bharatiya Gramin Vidyalaya (BGV), along with his wife Nirmala Misra, near Lucknow. His schools today work on rural education, girls’ education, vocational skills and more.

03Sanjit Bunker Roy

A passout of The Doon School, a graduate of St. Stephen’s College Delhi and a national squash player decides to train and educate rural Indians. He founded The Barefoot College in Rajasthan, where illiterate and semi-literate rural women were trained to install, maintain and repair solar panels – earning them the name “Solar Mamas.” Barefoot College’s impact soon expanded to establishing water pumps in villages, training local paramedics and other areas of self-reliance.

04Arvind Gupta

An IIT Kanpur graduate drops everything and starts making toys. Toys from Trash – matchsticks, straws, newspapers and whatnot. Toys that taught concepts of motion, sound, optics, electricity and aerodynamics. Arvind Gupta’s Toys from Trash is a testament to hands-on science education that’s full of fun and discovery. Talk about simplicity being the ultimate sophistication! He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2018.

05Shaheen Mistri

Shaheen built the Akanksha Foundation in 1991 to teach students from underprivileged sections of society. But teaching children directly wasn’t enough. Shen then founded the Teach for India project in 2008. The idea was simple – recruit talented young graduates, train them, and place them in under-resourced schools for two years to build a vast network of people committed to education equity.

06Dr. Anil Sadgopal

Dr. Anil Sadgopal took children out of rote learning and taught them through experiments via the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme (HSTP) in 16 government schools. Students studied soil, leaves and insects around them. They’d place twigs in red ink water and watch leaf veins turn red to understand how water moves through plants. Dr. Sadgopal was so successful that the MP government adopted the HSTP across the district.

07Ujjwala Wadekar

A Zila Parishad High School teacher from Maharashtra who took education beyond textbooks. She takes her students to plumbers, carpenters, shopkeepers and people from diverse vocations – so they know what life is like. She takes them to urban malls and complexes – so they’re ready to step up when time comes. She is Ujjwala Wadekar from Maharashtra’s Jalgaon. A teacher next door making all the difference without any demanding any spotlight.