Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Illuminating thoughts
|
Bunker Roy’s talk honoured the spirit of poor, illiterate people living in remote villages of this country
|
PHOTO: BY Author
SMILE OF SUCCESS Bunker Roy founded the Barefoot College which has become a role model
When I told my mother that I was quitting a lucrative bank job to work in the village, she was horrified,” recalled Bunker Roy at the beginning of his talk on ‘Demystifying Professionalism: the Gandhian Approach’. “She did not speak to me for years.” This was way back in the 1970s. Today, Roy can justifiably be proud of his decision. The Social Work and Research Centre – more famously known as the Barefoot College – he founded in 1972 in Tilonia, a nondescript village in Rajasthan, has gained national and international recognition. Its astounding success in identifying poor rural jobless and unemployable youth, and training them to be ‘barefoot’ engineers, teachers, communicators, architects, and IT professionals has been a role model to others.
Going far beyond the confines of Rajasthan, the Barefoot College has worked in several places from Ladakh to Kerala and even in villages of other countries, including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Bhutan, Senegal and Sierra Leone.
The College’s achievements range from making holistic community development involving all age groups and social sectors; use of rain water for irrigation, recharging of ground water and providing quality water for human and animal consumption; creating employment opportunities for rural men and women; setting up night schools; using solar energy to electrify homes of hundreds of villages; provision of new markets for rural artisans, to establishing women’s pressure group to fight for minimum wages.
Focus on poor
“We have never believed in paper qualifications,” asserted Roy. “The College does not take students who have a paper degree and diploma; in fact it could be a disqualification if they had one! We place our trust in the power of traditional knowledge, skills and experience of ordinary people, very poor, illiterate rural folk living in remote, inaccessible villages of this country, or for that matter anywhere in the world.”
Having lived for more than three decades in villages, Roy has realized that imparting skills people need in their everyday lives is more important than formal education in how to read and write.
“Indigenous knowledge, practical skills – that is the way.” He also feels community involvement and demystification of technology are essential to make an impact on development.
He is unabashed in saluting the creativity and innovative spirit of rural folk, especially women. “These women are incredible,” he says. “Once they know the basics, they can create wonders. Servicing hand pumps, designing water proofing roofs in buildings, and even handling computers comes to them with least effort.”
Roy cited some outstanding examples of women who had mastered the art and science of producing, installing and maintaining sophisticated solar equipment. Incidentally, the Barefoot College in Tilonia is the only fully solar electrified college in the whole country. “It was built in 1986 at a princely cost of Rs. 56 per square feet by a local villager, Bhanwarlal Jat who still cannot read or write,” recalls Roy. “You don’t need to be literate to be an engineer.”
Another feather in Tilonia’s cap is function of children’s parliament which has its own representatives of young girls and boys. “The effort has been so successful that in 2001 it won the World’s Children’s Prize from the Queen of Sweden in Mariefeld, Sweden,” recapped Roy. “The leader of the group was invited to receive the award. Looking at the girl, the Queen was astonished by her poise and confidence. She asked me to find out from where she got that robust confidence. The girl coolly replied, ‘I am the Prime Minister!’”
Roy’s richly illustrated talk which included slide presentation and short films was organized by the Raman Research Institute on the occasion of Gandhi’s 60th death anniversary.
GIRIDHAR KHASNIS
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
|
