Bunker Roy is the founder and director of the renowned Barefoot College in Tilonia village of Rajasthan. It is India’s only ‘solar’ college, built on Gandhian ideologies, which educates many illiterate women and men to become doctors, solar engineers, architects etc. He recently received the coveted Robert Hill Award for his contribution to the use of solar power for development. Excerpts from an interview:

Q1- Forty two years on, does Barefoot College still remain to be an experiment?

It is no longer an experiment. It is a proven bottom up alternative model that has demonstrated the power of poor grass root communities to identify their own problems and implement their own solution using their traditional knowledge skills and wisdom to provide cost effective impact.

Q2- With just sign language, sight and sound and no formal education, Barefoot College trains women and men to become dentists, solar engineers, doctors and architects. Was it not difficult to attain this goal?

It was not difficult to attain this goal once the organisation was convinced that there was a difference between Literacy and Education. Mark Twain said.”Never Let School interfere with your Education.” We believe the future of this country does not rest on the Literate but Uneducated. It depends on the Educated but Illiterate. Where is it written that just because one cannot read or write he/she cannot be a architect, designer, dentist, solar and water engineer, or communicator? The oral tradition in rural communities all over the world is very strong. What the Barefoot College has done is to mix the traditional with the modern: mix the traditional way of learning and unlearning through sign language, sight and sound with the technology of the 22nd Century in this case solar. The combination has proved very powerful and had an immediate impact in the mindset of the women who have been deliberately chosen as change agents

Q3- How did you manage to bring electricity, clean drinking water and health services in one of the driest villages of Rajasthan? Also did you face any form of resistance from the villagers and administrators of the state?

It does not require an expensive outside consultant with fancy degrees conducting a feasibility study costing lakhs of rupees to establish that all remote inaccessible villages all over the world including India face acute problems of lighting, safe drinking water, basic educational and health services. A paper qualified expert with no practical experience on rural realities will hardly be able to appreciate the rich expertise already available in communities to identify their own problems and come up with their own solutions. What the Barefoot College has done is to bring this process into mainstream and give it the respectability and credibility it deserves. For instance for hundreds of years the villages in Rajasthan used to collect rain water for their drinking and agricultural needs. Ever since the paper qualified engineer turned up on the scene this practice has been devalued and discouraged. Instead the engineer’s solution is to exploit groundwater. This is insane, short sighted and damaging to the environment on the long run. See the thousands of open wells and hand pumps that are dry today to prove the over exploitation of ground water should cease at once.

No fundamental change is possible without conflict of ideas, approaches and methods. So if any process like the barefoot process is being introduced and there is resistance from the right quarters (local money lender, petty business man, village official and politician) then the innovation is on the right track. The Barefoot College over the 40 years has faced much resistance from all the right quarters but has not shied away from any battles.

Q4- Why didn’t the other districts of India go the ‘Barefoot way’?

There are 24 inspired Barefoot Colleges in 13 States of India. Each have their own legal identity, their own Governing Bodies, their own sources of funds and their own priorities.

Q5- What prompted you to train women especially grandmothers from Africa?

The Barefoot College believes men are “untrainable.”They are restless, compulsively mobile, ambitious and all want a certificate after their training. Once they receive the certificate they leave their villages looking for jobs in the cities. So it is pointless training men in villages because the skills are lost.

A woman becomes a grandmother very early in Africa. Some are grandmothers at the age of 35. They have been found to be the best change agents and role models in Africa. Their capacity to learn slowly is phenomenal. They are old enough to earn the respect of the men and can defend themselves if anyone should take liberties. Not one of the over 500 grandmothers trained all over the 34 countries in Africa has failed to be a solar engineer.

Q6- How did the ‘Barefoot mission’ transformed from water and irrigation to empowerment and sustainability?

The Barefoot Model has demonstrated it is possible to empower rural women in all areas addressing basic minimum needs (Light, drinking water, health, night school education) because that is the only way of achieving human, technical, financial sustainability. A top down model depending on outside experts providing a technical service can never be sustainable.

Q7- Indian government spent approximately USD 2, 50,000 for setting up Barefoot training centres across Africa, Asia and other parts of the world. Don’t you think the money could have been used to set up more ‘Barefoot colleges’ in India?

Under the India Technical Economic Cooperation(ITEC)Programme of the Ministry of External Affairs the Barefoot College has trained nearly 500 rural grandmothers to be solar engineers and solar electrify over 20,000 houses in Africa. The 5 countries selected-Liberia, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Tanzania and South Sudan have the largest number of women solar engineers. The idea is that these women solar engineers will become the trainers in the Barefoot Vocational Training Centres with a view to demonstrating that more women could be trained “in-house”.

The Ministry of External Affairs intends to establish 5 Barefoot Training Centres in Africa and in addition solar electrify 11,000 houses in 22 countries across Africa.

As it has been mentioned earlier 24 Barefoot Colleges have already been established in 13 States of India.

Q8- How easy or difficult was it for you to arrange funds from the Government of India and international organizations like the UNESCO? Did your ‘privilege’ background be of any help?

Barefoot College has entered into global agreements with UNESCO (signed by DG herself), UNWOMEN(under the then leadership of Michelle Bachalet now President of Chile), GEF Small Grants Programme of UNDP and the Ministry of External Affairs Government of India.

It is important first to prove the simple idea on the ground and show its immediate impact. Then people get to hear of the barefoot model, its unique approach of involving communities and then the funds follow.

My privileged background has nothing to do with this Model being replicated in 64 of the Least Developed Countries around the world.

Q9- 80% of the college’s funding comes from international organizations and government and the rest from the own income of the employees. Don’t you think the percentage of own income should be increased as donations are usually unstable?

The effort has always been to be financially self sufficient but the College is not against taking foreign funding to spread the impact and reach of the Barefoot Model across the world. From the technical services being provided the goal is to be self sufficient by 2015.

Q10- You successfully employed the Gandhian ideology of self reliance and self sufficiency in today’s market-driven capitalistic society. Is it possible for the Government of India to adopt such techniques for developmental purposes?

The need for the Gandhian ideology of the rural poor developing themselves with self respect and dignity using their own knowledge and skills is more urgently than ever today. The fact that there are such few practical down to earth Gandhian organisations in India today makes the College unique. As an example that could be scaled up the Government of India has already adopted the Barefoot Model in India and abroad. But much more can be done.

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