Barefoot College

The Social Work and Research Centre ("SWRC"), widely known as the Barefoot College[1] is a voluntary organisation in India working in the fields of education, skill development, health, drinking water, women empowerment and electrification through solar power for the upliftment of rural people,[2] which was founded by Bunker Roy in 1972.

Barefoot College
Location
Tilonia
,
Rajasthan

India
Information
TypePublic
Established1972
FounderBunker Roy
CampusTilonia
Websitewww.barefootcollege.org

The "Villagers' Barefoot College" in the village of Tilonia gives lessons in reading, writing and accounting to adults and children especially the "drop-outs, cop-outs and wash-outs." Girls heavily outnumber boys in the night schools.[3] In 2008 there were approximately 3,000 children attending 150 night schools.[4][5]

In the profile acknowledging Roy as one of Time 100 most influential people for his work with the Barefoot College, Greg Mortenson wrote that the grass-roots social entrepreneurship has trained more than 3 million people for jobs in the modern world in simple, sustainable settings that accommodate the students' needs.[6]

History

Bunker Roy is the founder of what is now called Barefoot College.[7] After conducting a survey of water supplies in 100 drought prone areas, Roy established the Social Work and Research Centre in 1972.[7] Its mission soon changed from a focus on water and irrigation to empowerment and sustainability.[7] The programs focused on siting water pumps near villages and training the local population to maintain them without dependence on outside mechanics, providing training as paramedics for local medical treatment, and on solar power to decrease dependence and time spent on kerosene lighting.[7] Roy has been named one of the 50 environmentalists who could save the planet by the Guardian and one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME magazine.[8]

Night Schools were begun that allowed students who worked to support their families during the day to still receive training. The organisation has utilised a system of training the trainers to bring skills training to villages.[9]

In 1997, Kamala Devi became first female solar engineer trained by the college's programs. She continued to work with the college. In 2012, she became the head of the solar unit at Kadampura.[2]

Methodology
Barefoot College founder Bunker Roy speaking about the programs in January 2019

The programs are influenced by the Gandhian philosophy of each village being self-reliant.[4] The policy of the Barefoot College is to take students, primarily women from the poorest of villages and teach them skills such as installing, building and repairing solar lamps and waterpumps without requiring them to read or write. In extreme cases, there are students without verbal fluency in the languages of their teachers.[10]

The participating villages create a Village Energy and Environment Committee which determines the rates the villagers will pay for the solar panels and identifies which of the poorest residents of the town will go to the college for training.[4] The students receive 6-month training program learning about solar panels and storage batteries before returning home where they maintain and repair the systems.[4]

The college does not give out any degrees or certificates.[11] V. Krishna has described the approach as "de-mystifying high technology" to rural villages to show that with the right training, "the uneducated and semi-literate can operate and manage" items like solar panels and water pumps.[12]

Rajasthan's traditional art of puppetry has been utilised by the college to "spread information on health, education and human rights".[13]

Campus

The buildings used for the school have dirt floors and no chairs so that "poor students feel comfortable".[6]

The campus sits on 8 acres, has rainwater harvesting design and was built by the students.[14]

Cross-cultural collaboration

In 2012, the Barefoot College became the first NGO partner with UNESCO's Global Partnership for Girls' and Women's Education.[15] A UNDP funded program of India's Ministry of External Affairs brings women from villages in rural Africa (which do not have electricity) to the school for training, after which they return with new skills to install solar electricity in their villages.[16] The college entered into an agreement in 2012 to expand the programs for students from Fiji.[17]

The documentary film Solar Mamas, funded by the Skoll Foundation and the Sundance Institute, follows a Jordanian woman as she joins with other women from around the world to participate in the solar engineering training at Barefoot College.[18]

An exhibition of photographs taken by the students of the Barefoot College was presented at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.[3]

Awards and achievements
  • In 1998, it was awarded the Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Puraskar (Indira Gandhi Environment Award), by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.[19]
  • In 2003, the Barefoot College won an Ashden Award for its work bringing solar power to rural villages.[20]
  • In 2003, the Barefoot College won The St Andrews Prize for the Environment for training illiterate and semi-literate women to install and maintain solar power equipment in remote Himalayan villages, using so-called 'barefoot engineers'[21]
  • In 2013 it was declared that Bunker Roy would receive a 'Clinton Global Citizen Award', along with young activist Malala Yousufzai.[8]

Returned award
  • The creators of the campus near Tilonia received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Originally the award was attributed to "an illiterate farmer", but later the award was corrected and redesignated to read "A young architect, Neehar Raina, prepared the architectural layout and an illiterate farmer from Tilonia, along with 12 other Barefoot Architects, constructed the buildings." when the presenters became aware of the involvement of professional architect Neehar Raina.[14] Because of the inclusion of Raina, Roy did not accept the award on behalf of the school and returned it.[22]

Notable participants

See also

References
  1. The Barefoot College in Tilonia, 1997, Author: Sanjit (Bunker) Roy, Publisher:Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi
  2. Sarita Brara (30 October 2012). "Lead kindly light". The Hindu. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  3. Sanjay Suri. "In pictures: Villagers' Barefoot College". BBC Online. Retrieved 18 November 2012.
  4. Elkington, John; Hartigan, Pamela (1 February 2008). The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World. Harvard Business Press. pp. 52–. ISBN 9781422104064. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  5. Fred de Sam Lazaro (6 October 2008). "School in India Teaches Women to Improve Lives, Towns". PBS. Retrieved 18 November 2012.
  6. Mortenson, Greg. (29 April 2010) Sanjit 'Bunker' Roy The 2010 TIME 100. TIME. Retrieved on 2 June 2012.
  7. John, Mary (2003). Children's Rights and Power: Charging Up for a New Century. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. p. 232. ISBN 9781853026584. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  8. "India's Bunker Roy and Pakistan's Malala Yousufzai to receive top US award". Press Trust of India. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
  9. Osler, Audrey (2000). Citizenship and Democracy in Schools: Diversity, Identity, Equality. Trentham Books. p. 170. ISBN 9781858562223.
  10. "Barefoot College". Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  11. Rothstein, Mitchell Grant (2010). Self-management and Leadership Development. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 499. ISBN 9781848443235.
  12. Krishna, V (14 September 2005). Singh, M. (ed.). Meeting Basic Learning Needs in the Informal Sector: Integrating Education and Training for Decent Work, Empowerment and Citizenship. Springer. p. 200. ISBN 9781402034268. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  13. Lonely Planet Rajasthan, Delhi & Agra 2nd Edition. Lonely Planet. 2008. p. 207. ISBN 9781741046908.
  14. Jain, Sonu (1 July 2002). "Tilonia's Barefoot campus, now the bare facts". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 26 January 2013. Retrieved 27 July 2010.
  15. "India's Barefoot College and UNESCO join forces for Girls' and Women's Empowerment". United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  16. "Mujer Sana Hoy – Health and Wellbeing tips for all Women". Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  17. Gibson, Dawn (22 November 2012). "Women get $550,000". Fiji Times. Archived from the original on 2 May 2014. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  18. Fox, Killian (17 November 2012). "Documentary-makers join forces to expose the evil of global poverty". Guardian. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  19. "List of Awardees". Ministry of Environment and Forests. Archived from the original on 25 September 2010. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
  20. . 24 November 2003 http://www.thestandrewsprize.com/finalist/barefoot-engineers. Retrieved 29 March 2017. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  21. "2003 Winner Barefoot Engineers". 2003. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  22. "Swiss award for Bunker Roy". The Hindu. 22 September 2002. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
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