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| Students at a school run by Barefoot College |
I spent this last weekend in Tilonia, which is a block of small villages between Jaipur and Ajmer, Rajasthan. I went with my socio-economic class to observe the inner workings of Barefoot College. Unlike an American school where people must complete many years of education before attending, Barefoot College exists for any and everyone within the surrounding areas. In the villages where girls typically have a 5th grade education, 8th if lucky, and it is something if boys are making it to high school*, Barefoot College requires no specific amount of education to attend. The college runs entirely on solar power, drinks harvested rain water, eats communally, and operates collectively as a whole. As a non-government organization, the school runs off of grants, donations, and a small amount of self generated income.
The school teaches people from all over, including people coming from Africa, vocational skills, such as putting together batteries used to collect energy from the solar panels to actually engineering the iron rods and glass fixtures that make up the solar panels.
Can one achieve great accomplishments without knowing how to read?
While spending time in Tilonia, we were taken around the villages to meet two extraordinary people, both women—who have moved mountains. The first woman we met was a veteran mid wife who had helped deliver 400-600 babies. She told us her story in the village dialect of Hindi, which was translated through the founder of Barefoot Collage into [Delhi] Hindi so that our Professor could tell us in English. Her parents were killed at the age of 11, and being completely illiterate, this woman went on to attend classes on how to be a mid-wife. Though she could not read or write, she paid very good attention in the lessons and feels she, “came out at the top of her class.” She is considered a goddess by a certain village, where a baby was stillborn. Having learned CPR she was able to bring the baby to life after it was pronounced dead two hours prior. Amidst all of this, she has rallied thousands of women to stand up for their rights.
Several years ago, a woman was forced, and potentially drugged, to leap onto the burning body of her dead husband. The mid-wife, gathering many women, bussed down to where the court case was being tried and protested against such a heinous crime. Then, some time later, a 12 year old girl’s legs were cut off by a man wanting to steal her thick silver anklets. These particular anklets are a cultural necessity, and are placed on the children at a young age so that when the foot and leg grows it becomes impossible to take them off. What is worse: the man who did this was financially very comfortable. Again, the mid-wife and many other women went to protest. The man was put in jail and the girl was given enough means to support her. (Happy ending: the girl is now married and has a child.)
Later, my class met with the local sarpanch (the village leader), who was also a woman. This woman had made the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) run quite smoothly. However, she had once had to confront a man of a manger level position who oversaw the workers; he was embezzling money from other workers. The man was fired, but soon came after this woman. He sent a gang of men to beat and rape her. The woman was not harmed, but when she tried to press charges against the man, the local courts/police would not do anything about it. She kept going to higher and higher levels of the judicial system until finally she was able to press charges against the man. Now he is in jail.
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| Woman on a water break, working under NREGA to plant trees. |
The villages surrounding the Barefoot College are people of mostly lower caste, specifically people of the scheduled caste (SC—previously called the untouchables), scheduled tribe (ST), and below poverty line (BPL). Barefoot College works to teach these people how to collect rain water for drinking and works to provide them with education. Gandhi says, “Remove [the Poor’s] chronic poverty and his illiteracy and you will find the finest specimen of what a cultured, cultivated, free citizen should be.”** This quote speaks to Barefoot College’s accomplishments as they make available education and work to provide the common villager with a reliable income and feeling of self-worthiness.
I also feel it compels worlds apart to examine each other’s strengths. One of the resources Barefoot College provides are sanitary napkins for girls and women. It is hard to believe that in this day and age many women are still literally on the rag. I was able to observe how these pads are made. First, cardboard is recycled and turned into a fluffy dry pulp. The pulp is stuffed into the neat folds of a cloth-like-fabric that is eco-friendly. Then the fabric is stitched along the sides to prevent the pulp from sliding out. The entire pad is biodegradable/ These sanitary napkins along with the college’s collection of rain water, and use of solar power begs the question, Could a poor village in India be more sustainable than well to do cities in America?
Can contentedness, happiness, and tranquility exist down a dirt road, surrounded by poverty and mustard fields?
During my stay at the Barefoot College I felt completely at peace. The “campus” is calm and quiet. Every person knows his/her job and works diligently on task. Our meals were prepared for us and afterwards we were responsible for washing our plates. No tables or chairs were provided for eating on or sitting on; we ate on rugs lining the ground. Our rooms that we stayed in were comfortable yet only the minimum: beds with sheets, a ceiling light and fan. We shared communal bathrooms and had to carry hot water from the downstairs faucet up to the second floor in our buckets. Nonetheless, we all commented on how peaceful we felt, and how nice of an atmosphere the place engendered.
Interested in crafts, clothes, and accessories made in Tilonia? Support the the local artisans!
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*There are many reasons that children do not always achieve high levels of education. For girls there are two general reasons: 1) Whole villages may only span the distance of half a kilometer. Elementary education is required for each village, but middle and high school may be many kilometers away. As girls get older, parents fear having them travel far distances to school, lest they get raped. 2) As girls get older they are needed/required to watch younger siblings while parents work (in the fields or at job sites). For boys, parents do not fear their lengthy travels, but may need them to stay home and work. Barefoot College has established many night schools for children who need to work during the day, such as tending to and grazing their goats/cows/livestock during the day. I was able to attend one of these night schools. Our class had had a jam packed day and we were all exhausted, while children who had worked hard all day were eagerly and hungrily learning about their Hindi alphabet.
**(Mind of Mahatma Gandhi http://www.mkgandhi.org/momgandhi/chap76.htm)
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