The Barefoot College
The seeds of the Barefoot College were planted 20 years ago in rural Rajasthan by social activist Sanjit ‘Bunker’ Roy. And since then three million people have been empowered by practical hands-on education and community values.
From its roots in the small village of Tilonia in central Rajasthan, the Barefoot College branches have reached across India, with similar projects under Barefoot management blossoming in the deserts and the Himalayas.
Barefoot College focuses on education rather than literacy, vocations rather than diplomas, and also honouring traditional knowledge and community values. Emphasis is put on creating solar energy, clean water, health care, rural handicrafts, communication, women’s empowerment and wasteland development.
Their doctrine is to: “Respect the wisdom of traditional knowledge and mould it with the involvement of rural communities to meet their needs.”
The Barefoot College is one of the few places in India where Mahatma Gandhi’s spirit of service and thoughts on sustainability, are still alive and respected. The College has adopted the Gandhian ideas into its lifestyle and work ethics.
Giving Power To The People
Communication is the trunk of the Barefoot system. Listening to the needs of the community and utilizing traditional ways of building for example; or only introducing technologies that can be understood and managed by the community. If you need an outsider to control the technology then the power is taken out of the hands of the community.
These values were firmly planted by Bunker Roy who has been named by The Guardian as one of the 50 people who could save the planet and who is in Time Magazine’s Top 100 Influential people for 2010.
“Gandhi once said that there is a difference between Literacy and Education. The Barefoot College believes that ‘literacy’ is what one acquires in school, but ‘education’ is what one gains from family, traditions, culture, environment and personal experiences. Both are important for individual growth. At the College, everyone is considered an education resource, the teacher as well as the student and the literate as well as illiterate. Therefore, the Barefoot College is a radical departure from the traditional concept of a college," says Bunker Roy.
So often in the towns, we think we know best. We have our big city diplomas but that knowledge is not necessarily better than traditional ways. City solutions cannot always be applied like a band-aid to rural problems. Also westerners or big city types often feel they cannot learn anything from the illiterate, but we need to start listening and valuing everybody as a teacher.
The Flowering Tree
A blossoming branch of Barefoot College is its empowerment and focus on women. Gandhi championed equality for women and yet this is simply not reflected in society.
Imagine India and you will often bring to mind a woman carrying a water pot on her head. It is also not uncommon to see women in saris laying tarmac with a watering can in major road construction sites with their children at the side of the road.
Village women do more than 70% of the domestic and agricultural work, getting water, sowing and harvesting crops, tending to children, livestock as well as all the usual household duties.
It is also a tradition in many rural areas throughout India, that after the toils of the day, the menfolk will eat first.
Barefoot College has challenged the norms and the stereotypes, and Barefoot Women are just as likely to be making solar panels and learning welding as making quilts and handicrafts and teaching at the night schools.
Even more pioneering is that women who are single mothers, divorced, widowed or physically challenged are given priority to train as they need the opportunities more than most as they are so often treated as outcasts. In India, the shame on the divorcee or even widow has meant that for years, women have been pushed out of the community.
On top of that, women are organized into groups that can look out for each other and offer support. Social networking has a whole new meaning among the Barefoot Women.
“Instead of forcing bookish ‘literacy’ onto rural women that will be of little use to them, the College chooses to ‘educate’ them in ‘legal literacy’ that can help solve problems like violation of women’s rights, minimum wages, domestic violence, and Right to Information. As part of their political empowerment, women have been familiarized with the functioning and implementation of justice, public offices, transparency, public hearings and social audits, so that they are aware, comfortable and confident enough to question any political system,” says Roy.
This form of social education is at the roots of a holistic, supportive system which empowers women in all areas of their lives.
The installation of solar lighting (up to 20,000 units) and rainwater harvesting techniques across 16 states in India and also internationally across three continents has reduced the hardships of women having to carry water canisters on their heads or the respiratory diseases caused by cooking over wood and kerosene. Solar-powered cookers have revolutionized the lives of rural women.
Shining more of a light onto the lives of India’s rural women, Barefoot Women have been encouraged to make films and photograph their lives.
Looking to the future, children are seen as a valuable part of the community. There is a night school so that children can study at night after working during the day, and this system has branched out to 150 night schools across India and they also blossom as far afield as Ethiopia.
“The ‘Barefoot approach’ may be viewed as a ‘concept’, ‘solution’, ‘revolution’, ‘design’ or an ‘inspiration’ but it is really a simple message that can easily be replicated by the poor and for the poor in neglected and underprivileged communities anywhere the world. The barefoot approach of community management, control and ownership has demonstrated the power of simple solutions.”
Find out more at www.barefootcollege.org or www.tilonia.com
photo by June Halifax for The Barefoot College