Lucknow, July 12: One is a 16-year-old Pakistani girl who was shot at by militants for promoting female education.

The other is a 16-year-old Indian girl who, since being rescued from a football-stitching factory five years ago, has been helping free child labourers and motivating them to study.

Razia Sultan of Meerut would have felt a little wistful this evening watching Malala Yousafzai address a global audience at the United Nations in New York.

The similarities between the two were underscored last evening when Razia received a letter from the UN’s New York office declaring her the recipient of this year’s United Nations Special Envoy Award for Global Education and Youth Courage.

“It’s a great honour. It wouldn’t have happened without the inspiration provided by Malala,” Razia, named after the country’s only Indian empress who was crowned 777 years ago, told The Telegraph this morning.

Was she disappointed not to be among the student invitees listening to Malala in New York on the Pakistani girl’s 16th birthday, declared “Malala Day” by the UN?

“I’ll watch it on TV,” Razia had said. “Although I couldn’t make it to the UN today, I’ve been told I’d be able to go there soon and that I shall soon be felicitated in Delhi.”

Malala may well have heard of Razia, too, if former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has kept his promise, made last November, to take the Indian girl’s story to Malala’s father.

All this would have seemed improbable when, aged 10, Razia was sent to work long hours in a factory at her village of Nanglakhumba, 10km from Meerut town.

For seven months, she spent her days stitching pieces of animal hides, to be turned into footballs, till a raid by NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan freed her in 2008. “I never played football but I used to stitch these for money,” Razia said.

After a few months at a camp school run by the NGO near her village, Razia was admitted to Meerut’s LTR Royal Public School, where she is a Class XII student now.

“In 2009, she helped us rescue 48 children from football-making units in the region and put them in school,” said Deepti, a spokesperson for Bachpan Bachao Andolan.

Razia has persuaded many poor families in and around Meerut to send their children to school.

A year ago, she was elected sarpanch (head) of the Bal Mahapanchayat, a national council of child labourers rescued by the NGO. Since then, Razia has been travelling across the country addressing freed child labourers and urging them to study.

Her journey to fame began when she met Brown, a United Nations special envoy for global education, in November during the ex-Premier’s visit to a Meerut home for released child labourers.

In his address, Brown said that as he looked at Razia, he was reminded of Malala — a comment that immediately earned Razia the sobriquet of “India’s Malala”.

Razia’s father Farman Ali sounded apologetic today as he explained that poverty had prompted him to send her to work in the factory.

Razia said: “I shall carry Malala’s dream forward by helping spread education. But before that I shall celebrate Malala’s 16th birthday today with this token of recognition from the UN.”