Malala wants corporates to support girl education

Overwhelmed by the "love and support" she has been getting from Indians, she is also keen to visit India to meet businessmen, activists and political leaders in the country, who want to work on helping educate and empower girls.

Malala, who was here to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting last week, met a number of government and business leaders from across the world and said many of them expressed their commitment in joining hands with her to help send the girls who have not been able to go to school. The 20-year-old, who was shot at by Taliban at the age of 15 for defying the ban on girls going to school and went on to get a Nobel Peace Prize and become the UN Messenger of Peace, said she is a big fan of India and wants to learn more about the country's culture and values.

She has co-founded Malala Fund that seeks to invest in girl education across the world, while one of its initiatives Gulmakai Network - named on Malala's pen name that she used while writing blogs against Taliban regime - supports the work of education champions across the world.

Malala said she is very keen on expanding to India this Gulmakai Network, which seeks to engage with locals in every country who are keen to work on its cause. In an interview, Malala told PTI she got a lot of support from leaders and civil society members present at WEF and she gave a message to the government leaders that they should increase their funding for girl education.

"There is a lack of funding and it is actually declining and it is really unfortunate that rather than seeing a positive increase in funding for education, it is declining.

"This is shocking and alarming and we have to push the governments to increase the funding for education," she said. Malala, who also met Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said she was happy that Canada has announced support for global partnership for education.

"I hope that in coming months at G7 and G20 meetings, all the developed countries will increase their support towards girl education and women empowerment. "I have heard many people saying that these summits have no outcome but I think this year at least they are giving more attention towards women and their education and empowerment," she said. Malala said she is seeing a positive change and it may take a while in terms of businesses and corporates, but they have the resources and technology and all the things that are needed.