How a dialogue between a farmer and a Delhi University graduate is changing India!

Clad as she is in traditional Rajasthani attire, it’s easy to dismiss Shenaz as just another woman from a rural household. But no, she’s a solar cooker engineer.  And if you think somebody who’s studied only till Class 2 can’t manage complex stuff like audio video technology, Mohan can prove you wrong.

Meet people who are change makers in their own right. Meet people who are helping their remote rural communities grow, develop and become sustainable. This is a story that shows how rural communities can be empowered, a story that should empower the rest of us too. This is a story that the rest of India should read.

Something to learn from a tiny village in Rajasthan

In the tiny village of Tiloniya, 360 km from Delhi and 115 Km from Jaipur,  for 40 years now a non-governmental organization called the Barefoot College has been the epicentre of a silent revolution.  Departing radically from the traditional concept of a college, this institution has trained thousands of rural men and women as barefoot teachers, doctors, health workers, solar engineers, architects, artisans, communicators, water chemists, phone operators…the list goes on.

The difference between literacy and education

The Barefoot College believes that literacy is what one acquires in school, while an education is what one gains from family, traditions, culture, environment and personal experiences. Both are important for individual growth. The Barefoot College education programme teaches people how to read and write, but also imparts a variety of other skills, encouraging learning-by-doing. At the College, everyone is considered an education resource, the teacher as well as the student, the literate as well as the illiterate.

PS: If only our schools and colleges were based on this principle. We would probably be better professionals and, more importantly, better human beings!

The genesis: a dialogue between a farmer and a graduate

In the late ’60s, a small group of educated youths started looking for alternative ways of addressing poverty in rural India.  Their search for approaches and strategies led some of them to live and work in villages. It was during that time that Meghraj, a Tiloniya farmer, and Sanjit Bunker Roy, a fresh graduate from Delhi University, became friends. They talked about how embedding formal urban knowledge onto rural wisdom could create a world free of poverty. Things began to take concrete shape soon after. In 1972, Bunker Roy founded the Barefoot College with a simple mission: to provide basic services and solutions in rural communities with the objective of making them self-sufficient.

Transforming rural communities

The Barefoot College has an array of programs that help create livelihoods for both individuals and families in rural communities. The programmes are designed in such a way that people in rural communities can be a part of them while managing day-to-day household responsibilities. For instance, there are night schools for children burdened with responsibilities who are unable to be part of day schooling programmes.

Training programmes at Barefoot College straddle fields as varied as solar power, water, education, healthcare, crafts and communication. These programmes and initiatives are planned, managed and implemented by members of the rural community, and each programme eventually becomes a source of employment. Single mothers, divorced women, and differently-abled and illiterate people are prioritised for training as they are most in need of support and employment opportunities.

Ripples of inspiration

The Barefoot College model is based on the philosophy that villages must be made self-sufficient so that they are not dependent on outside or urban sources for development and employment. Not surprisingly, the College’s work in this area has attracted international attention. It has even trained grandmothers from Africa and the Himalayan region to be solar engineers so they can bring electricity to their remote villages.

The College and the Tiloniya communities around it continue to leave a lasting impression on members and those who have spent time working and learning there. There are now several organizations across India that have modelled themselves on  Barefoot College. The College also has a number of partners across the globe.

A power story hidden in these numbers

Solar electrification of 1000+ villages, fresh drinking water through solar powered desalination, the education of 7000+ students through night schools, 37,000+ men and women trained as Barefoot professionals… the list showcases the immense impact of the programme.  One thing is clear: the Tiloniya ‘barefoot approach’  demonstrates the power of simple solutions. Serious respect for such efforts, folks.