Answering all of these queries is the Barefoot College. Founded by Mr. Bunker Roy, it began in 1972 with the belief that solutions to many of the existing rural problems lie within the community. The college benefits the poorer sections of the society who do not have other alternatives. The Barefoot College gives priority to the semi-literate to ill-literate women of rural population. The only pre-requisite for admission to this college is that there is no pre-requisite, not even to speak the language. Barefoot College believes that development programs do not need urban-based professionals because para-professionals already exist in the villages whose wisdom, knowledge and skills are untapped, just because of the lack of educational qualification. This is a place where the teachers are the learners and the learners are the teachers. Here, no degrees or certificates are awarded. What is awarded is self-reliance and confidence by the way of practical knowledge. Here the people are encouraged to make mistakes so that they can learn humility, curiosity, courage to take risks and innovate, to improvise and to experiment.
Mr. Bunker Roy was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi whose idea of self-reliant learning made a lasting impression on him and Mark Twain who quoted never to let the school interfere with your education. School is where you learn something like reading or writing. Education is what you learn from your family, from the environment, from the experiences and from the community. Mr. Roy prefers women as students since he sadly concludes that men are un-trainable. The expectations of men are too much. They are restless. If they are young, they are impatient. The first thing they ask even before the training starts is, do I get a certificate? He seems to be of the opinion that they will use these certificates to get the worst jobs possible in the city, whereas if the middle aged grand mothers were to be trained, he wouldn't have the problem of migration. Since Barefoot College works towards a cause, it is very important that the people who achieve valuable knowledge contribute back to the community.
The Barefoot College has managed to electrify close to 350 villages across India with the solar power technology. Safe Drinking water has been provided for the first time through 67 hand pumps at a height of 15000 feet in Ladakh in the state of Jammu & Kashmir. The Barefoot engineers with barely any qualification have planned and implemented water supply schemes in 13 villages, benefiting 19000 people. They spread the awareness of Rainwater harvesting in 320 rural schools, resulting in 18 million liters of rain water harvested. Over 3000 drop out children attend 150 night schools in 150 villages. Their day job being herding cattle and sheep.
This college does not take concern of just the India’s rural population but also takes concern about the plight of rural population of the neighboring countries like Bhutan, Afghanistan, and others such as Cameroon, Gambia, Mali and Sierra Leone.
This is an achievement. Why is there such a moderate spread of word of something so huge and noble happening across India and other countries, by an Indian? This sure does require a worthy attention if not some commendable accolade. What Mr. Roy and his team have been doing with the Barefoot College, gives a lot of hope to all the poor rural population across the world. It would be nice to spread this word. I am doing my bit. What are you waiting for?
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