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The Social Work and Research Centre ("SWRC"), widely known as the Barefoot College is a voluntary organization working in the fields of education, skill development, health, drinking water, women empowerment and electrification through solar power for the upliftment of rural people, which was founded by Bunker Roy in 1972. It is registered under Friends of Tilonia Inc.

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.In 2008 there were approximately 3,000 children attending 150 night schools.

Greg Mortenson, writes such abiding compassion and grass-roots social entrepreneurship has trained more than 3 million people for jobs in the modern world, "in buildings so rudimentary they have dirt floors and no chairs" so that poor students feel comfortable.

History

Bunker Roy founded Social Work and Research Centre in 1972 in Tilonia. Night Schools were begun that allowed students to work to support their families during the day to still receive training. The organization has utilized a system of training the trainers to bring skills training to villages.

In 1997, Kamala Devi became "the first woman barefoot solar engineer" trained by the colleges programs, and she continued to work with the college, becoming head of the solar unit at Kadampura in 2012.

Methodology

The programs are influenced by the Gandhian philosophy of each village being self-reliant. The policy of the Barefoot College is to take students, primarily women from the poorest of villages and teach them to skills such as install build and repair 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.

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. The students receive 6 month training program learning about solar panels and storage batteries before returning home where they maintain and repair the systems.

The college does not give out any degrees or certificates. 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.

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

Campus

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

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

Cross-cultural collaboration

In 2012, the Barefoot College became the first NGO partner with UNESCO's Global Partnership for Girls’ and Women’s Education. 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. The college entered into an agreement in 2012 to expand the programs for students from Fiji.

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.

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

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.
• In 2003, the Barefoot College won an Ashden Award for its work bringing solar power to rural villages.

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. Because of the inclusion of Raina, Roy did not accept the award on behalf of the school and returned it.

External links

• The Barefoot Approach, essay from Sumithra Prasanna for the International Museum of Women

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 (October 30, 2012). "Lead kindly light". The Hindu. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
3. Corporate website.
4. ^ Sanjay Suri. "In pictures: Villagers' Barefoot College". BBC Online. Retrieved 18 November 2012.
5. ^ Elkington, John ,; Hartigan, Pamela (2008-02-01). 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.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
6. Fred de Sam Lazaro. "School in India Teaches Women to Improve Lives, Towns". PBS. Retrieved 18 November 2012. {{cite news}}: Text "October 6, 2008" ignored (help); Text "Online NewsHour" ignored (help); Text "PBS" ignored (help)
7. ^ Mortenson, Greg. (2010-04-29) Sanjit 'Bunker' Roy The 2010 TIME 100. TIME. Retrieved on 2012-06-02.
8. Osler, Audrey (2000). Citizenship and Democracy in Schools: Diversity, Identity, Equality. Trentham Books. pp. 170–. ISBN 9781858562223. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
9. http://www.barefootcollege.org/
10. Rothstein, Mitchell Grant (2010-06-01). Self-management and Leadership Development. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 499–. ISBN 9781848443235. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
11. Krishna, V (2005-09-14). Singh, M. (ed.). Meeting Basic Learning Needs in the Informal Sector: Integrating Education and Training for Decent Work, Empowerment and Citizenship. Springer. pp. 200–. ISBN 9781402034268. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
12. Lonely Planet Rajasthan, Delhi & Agra 2nd Edition. Lonely Planet. 2008-10-01. pp. 207–. ISBN 9781741046908. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
13. ^ Jain, Sonu (1 July 2002). "Tilonia's Barefoot campus, now the bare facts". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 27 July 2010. Retrieved 27 July 2010.
14. "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. DAWN GIBSON (Nov 22, 2012). "Women get $550,000 -". Fiji Times. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
17. Killian Fox (17 November 2012). "Documentary-makers join forces to expose the evil of global poverty". Guardian. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
18. "List of Awardees". Ministry of Environment and Forests.
19. Barefoot College wins Ashden Award
20. "Award (controversy) Barefoot Architects". July, 2002. Retrieved 26 November 2012. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

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