Today when we see politicians investing and running educational institutions which don’t make any sense; when we are witnessing business made out of educational institutions; and we are also seeing lacs of educated youth struggling to get jobs……..in this scenario there is one unique institution in Rajasthan, India which is an extraordinary school called ‘’Barefoot College’’ which teaches rural women and men to earn their living with dignity. Some of these students are illiterate but they are becoming good solar engineers, artisans, dentists and doctors in their own villages. The founder Bunker Roy is an astonishing human who has changed lives of so many poor, illiterate people for the better and empowered them poor to gain access to a bright future. In a country where countless people live below the poverty line, this college is transforming lives of countless people.

Established in 1972, the Barefoot College is a non-government organisation that has been providing basic services and solutions to problems in rural communities, with an objective of making them self-sufficient and sustainable. These ‘Barefoot solutions’ can be broadly categorised into solar energy, water, education, health care, rural handicrafts, people’s action, communication, women’s empowerment and wasteland development. The College believes that for any rural development activity to be successful and sustainable, it must be based in the village as well as managed and owned by those whom it serves. Therefore, all barefoot initiatives whether social, political or economic, are planned and implemented by a network of rural men and women who are known as ‘Barefoot Professionals’.

The Barefoot founder Prof. Sanjit  Roy more famously known as ‘Bunker’ Roy completed his formal education in The Doon School (1956-62) and St. Stephens College Delhi University (1962-1967). He was the Indian National Squash Champion in 1965, 1967 and 1971. His “real” education started when he dug open wells for drinking water as an unskilled labourer for 5 years (1967-1971). He saw how the most extraordinary knowledge and skills the rural poor have and they need to challenge unexpected situations in daily lives; this inspired Bunker to establish the only fully solar electrified Barefoot College in the deserts of Rajasthan in India 40 years ago. It is the only College in India built by the poor and managed by the rural poor who earn less than $ 1/day. Almost the only College left in India that respects and practices the work style and life style of Mahatma Gandhi. It is a College where the teacher is the learner and the learner the teacher. It is the only College in India where traditional knowledge and practical skills of the poor are given more importance and priority than paper degrees or qualifications.  Prof. Roy is a great believer in Mark Twain who said, “Never Let School Interfere with your Education.”

In fact knowledge often corrupts our creative instincts.

Rural men and women irrespective of age, educational backgrounds cannot imagine to get the lowest government job, hence are being trained to work as day and night school teachers, doctors, midwives, dentists, health workers, balsevikas, solar engineers, solar cooker engineers, water drillers, hand pump mechanics, architects, artisans, designers, masons, communicators, water testers, phone operators, blacksmiths, carpenters, computer instructors, accountants and kabaad-se-jugaad (creating functional things from rags) professionals. With little guidance, encouragement and space these people grow and exhibit their talent and abilities, people who have been considered ‘very ordinary’ and written off by society, are doing extraordinary things which sounds most unbelievable until you see this with your eyes.

The College has adopted the Gandhian ideas into its lifestyle and work ethics, holding it true and relevant universally even in the 21st Century. Because it is a Centre for learning, with a difference:

• It’s a centre of learning and unlearning
• Where the teacher is the learner and the learner a teacher; that’s the real essence of teaching-learning process.
• Where everyone is expected to keep an open mind, try new and crazy ideas, make mistakes but never give up and try again.
• The college welcomes even those who have no degrees are welcome to come, work and learn.
• Where those are accepted who are not eligible for even the lowest government jobs.
• Here tremendous value is placed on the dignity of labour, of sharing and those are willing to work with their hands;
• The best thing – no certificates, degrees or diplomas are given; so nobody’s ego is inflated.

The Barefoot College is viewed as a success story because it is shown as an example of what is possible when a very ordinary person is allowed to develop by himself. It is a new concept that has stood the test of time. What the College has effectively demonstrated is how sustainable the combination of traditional knowledge (barefoot) and demystified modern skills can be, when the tools are in the hands of those who are considered ‘very ordinary’ ‘illiterate’ and are written off by urban society.

The Barefoot College represents and decentralises sophisticated technology by handing its control to poor communities in rural India. It believes that even the poorest of poor cannot be denied the right to use, manage and own technology to improve their own lives. The aim has been to develop the capacity and competence of communities to take decisions and responsibilities and improve their management capabilities. The Barefoot College augments their self-confidence by providing them access to learning to harness their ability to serve their own community, thus making them more confidently self-reliant.

This college encourages a hands-on learning-by-doing process of gaining practical knowledge and skills rather than written tests and paper based qualifications. It promotes and strengthens the kind of education one absorbs from family, community, and personal experience. It applies the knowledge and skills that the poor already possess for their own development thus making them independent and letting them live with self respect and dignity. Very ordinary people who are ignored by society are doing extraordinary things that challenge description.

It’s worth knowing that in a village, for instance, a shopkeeper is more that just an outlet for provisions; he keeps seeds and fertilisers for distribution, he sells contraceptive, he reads newspapers and disseminates information, and sometimes he is also a member of the village council. He in fact is the last word in integration. This applies also to the school teacher.

No project plan was designed in advance, no clear time schedule, no detailed programme activities, no organisational and administrative arrangements, project staff or physical inputs, etc. Tilonia (name of the village) where Barefoot is established let the organisation grow as a process where human beings and their development, their confidence and personal growth meant more and mattered more.

The investment was more in people than in projects. This has been the first priority. No recruitment through advertisement but by word of mouth, by trial and error.

Barefoot College started with a groundwater survey and gradually built in a health and education programme (1974) when they managed to attract two well-trained and highly motivated women from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. In 1975-96, when the Barefoot Collage managed to locate the right person, it started the Rural Industries Section and the Agricultural Extension Programme (1975). Other programmes followed until 1979, when the BC changed its way of functioning and decision-making. No longer did it depend on the director, but group was formed which took all the major decisions. The BC could not possibly plan and implement programmes from Tilonia for a territory of 500 square miles; the block was sub-divided into field centres, each looking after 6-25 villages depending on the staff and their capacity.

What makes the barefoot approach essentially different is that it does not give certificates, diplomas or degrees to its students. They have to learn things practically. The certification is done by the community they serve. The issuing of certificates is one major reason why migration takes places from the villages to the cities. I think today every developing nation in the world requires many Barefoot Colleges.

I think the present generation of children in India should know who Sir M. Visvesvaraya was.  This great, illustrious man was of different league altogether.  Honest to the core, astute in his mental makeup and judicious in his tasks. He had an extra ordinary intelligence, was very generous and had a vision. Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya popularly known as Sir M.V was born in Muddenahalli village in the Kolar District (Karnataka), on the 15 September 1861.

He was an exceptional engineer and a visionary who shaped many institutions in Karnataka like the Bhadravati Steel Factory, Mysore University, Krishnarajasagara dam, Bank of Mysore, the railway system of Mysore, and the hydroelectric projects at Shivanasamudram. Each creation of his was judiciously thought and so well crafted that each of these creations are prodigious and magnificent, standing tall even today.

He was instrumental in beginning the “Government Engineering College” at Bangalore, which was one of the first engineering institutes in India. This institution was later renamed as the “University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering” (UVCE) after its founder. It remains as one of the most reputed institutes of engineering in India till this date. After taking voluntary retirement in 1908, Sir M.V was appointed as Dewan, (Minister) of the Kingdom of Mysore. With the support of Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV, Maharaja of Mysore, he made an exceptional contribution, as Dewan, to the all-round development of the Karnataka State. He literally nurtured this state.

Sir M.V’s father was Srinivasa Sastry and his mother Venkachamma. Srinivas Sastry was a scholar in Sanskrit. Visvesvaraya inherited great respect for the culture and the traditions of the land from his parents. He completed his early education in Chikkaballapur; and then came to Bangalore for higher education. He joined the Central College. As soon as the results were out, the Government of Bombay offered him a post of Assistant Engineer at Nasik.

From Bombay, Sri M.V. went to Hyderabad as Chief Engineer. His great achievement in Hyderabad was the taming of the river Moosa. This river divides the city into two parts. In 1908, the river was dreadfully flooded, as never before. The waters of the river drowned many houses, men, women, children and cattle. They were carried away by the floods. Visvesvaraya planned dams to tame both the Moosa and another river Isa. He also suggested that lovely parks should be laid out on the banks of the rivers. The sites of the dams and the adjoining parks are worth a visit even today.

He respected water as a resource, and did not like wastage of it.  He said water is very precious to the farmer and it has to be put to the best possible use. For this, the Government appointed a Committee; it was to find ways of helping irrigation. Visvesvarayya found a solution. He implemented an extremely intricate system of irrigation (Block System). He devised steel doors; these could stop the wasteful flow of water in dams. The British Government were full of praise for the solution. The Government appreciated Visvesvarayya’s genius and work. He was promoted to higher positions. This meant even more difficult work. But he loved taking on newer challenges.

When Sir M.V. was only thirty-two a difficult work was assigned to him. He had to find a way of supplying water from the river Sindhu to a town called Sukkur. He prepared a plan, which was so well received; it added another feather in his cap.

Sir M.V was very particular of what he spoke, in what context and what background – he had to often make speeches. Because of his intelligence, experience and wisdom people thronged to hear him. Visvesvaraya would prepare his speeches thoroughly; he would think about what he was going to say, write them impeccably, get them typed and ponder over every word and revise it. He would revise it four or five times and give it a final shape. Then he would remember important points. Once he visited the Primary School in his native village, Muddenahalli; he gave the teacher ten rupees and asked him to distribute sweets to the children. The teacher said, “Please say a few words to the children, sir,” MV spoke for five minutes and went away. He had spoken without preparation. Some days later he prepared a speech and went to the school again; once again he distributed sweets to the children, and spoke with them importance of developing good habits of learning.

In 1947 he was the President of the All India Manufacturers’ Association. He had to make a speech at a function. Some of his friends were staying with him. On the day of the function they woke up at half past four in the morning. What they saw astonished them; Sir MV, who was 87 then, was already up and flawlessly dressed; he was walking up and down; he had in his hands a copy of the speech he was to make and was carefully reading and reciting it!

He was a well-organized man. We all need to learn some important soft skills from his life. He was always punctual; he was never late by a minute and he never wasted a minute. He honored people who respected time. He said every man should understand his responsibility and do his best. He was honest to the core. There are hundreds of instances to prove this. He dressed impeccably. Until he was restrained to his bed he was very particular about his sense of dressing up. Even when he was 95 people who went to see him were surprised; he was so carefully and neatly dressed. Till the age of 95, Sir M.V would get up to meet people who visited him, and see them off till the door.

In 1952 he went to Patna to study feasibility of a bridge across the Ganga. It was scorching hot. MV was 92. There were some stretches of the site which he could not travel by car. The Government had organized assistants to carry him in chair in those difficult stretches. MV did not use the service; instead, he got off the car and walked briskly. The Government had also arranged for his stay in the Government Guest House. They wanted him to be comfortable. But he stayed in the railway coach and went on with the work. Where are you going to find such people today?

He once said, “The curse of our country is laziness. At first sight everyone seems to be working. But in fact, one man works and the others watch him. As someone said with contempt, ‘it looks as if five men are working. But really only one man works. One man will be doing nothing. One man will be resting. Another man will be watching them. Yet another man will be helping these three.”

Visvesvaraya was a man of spotless honesty. When he was the Dewan, one of his friends wrote to him asking for a house for some days. He thought the Dewan would give him a Government Guest House, free of rent. The Dewan did so. The friend enjoyed his stay in a Government Guest House; but as long as the friend stayed there, the Dewan himself paid a rent of Rs. 250 a month. In 1918 he decided to give up the Dewanship. He had to give the Maharaja his letter of resignation. He went to the palace in the Government car and he returned home in his own car. Those were days when people had to work by candlelight. MV used, for official work, the stationery and the candles supplied by the Government; for his private work he used stationery and candles which he had bought.

Sir MV was a fearless patriot. Those were days when the Englishmen behaved like lord and wanted to be treated like a gods. The Maharaja of Mysore used to hold a Durbar during the Dasara. On the day of the European Durbar, the Europeans were given comfortable chairs but Indians were required to sit on the floor. MV went to the Durbar for the first time in 1910. The arrangements pained him. The next year he did not attend the Durbar. When the officers of the palace made enquiries he frankly gave the reason.

This great legendry man used to support thousands of families with food; he educated thousands of economically weak students. Due to his efforts of electrification thousands of houses were bright with electricity. This truly patriotic man led the country on the path of progress.

The independent India honored great servants of the country every year by awarding titles. The highest of this award is ‘Bharata Ratna’. In 1955 Visvesvaraya was honored with a ‘Bharata Ratna’, which means the Gem of India which he so accurately deserved. He was a gem of mankind. I salute this legendry man wholeheartedly!!!

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