Learning from a barefoot movement Bunker Roy
I’d like to take you to another world
and I’d like to share a 45 year old love
story with the poor living on less than
$1 a day I went to a very elitist
snobbish expensive education in India
and that almost destroyed me I was all
set to be a diplomat teacher doctor they
all laid out then I don’t look it but I
was Indian national squash champion for
three years the whole world was laid out
for me everything is on my feet could do
nothing wrong and then I thought out of
curiosity I’d like to go and live in a
work and just see what a village is like
so in 1965 I went to what is called the
worst be hard famine in India and I saw
starvation death people dying of hunger
for the first time change my life came
back home told my mother I like to live
and work in a village
mother went into a coma what is this old
world is laid out for you the best jobs
are laying out for you and you want to
go and work in a village I mean is there
something wrong with you
I said no I’ve got the best education it
made me think and I wanted to give
something back in my own way what do you
want to do in a village no job no money
no security no prospect I said I want to
live and dig wells for five years dig
wells for five years you went to the
most expensive school and college in
India and you want to dig wells for five
years she don’t speak to me for many
long time because she thought I’d let my
family down
but then I was exposed to the most
extraordinary knowledge and skills that
very poor people have which has never
bought into mainstream which has never
identified respected applied in a large
scale and I thought I’d start a Barefoot
college College only for the poor or the
poor thought was important would be
reflected in the college went to this
village for the first time elders came
to me and said are you running from the
police
I said no
you failed in your exam
you still know you didn’t get a
government job I said no what are you
doing here why are you here the
education system in India makes you look
look at Paris and Delhi and Zurich what
are you doing in this village is there
something wrong with you don’t not
telling us said no I want to actually
start a college only for the poor but
the poor thought was important would be
reflected in the college so then this
gave me some very sound and profound
advice they said please don’t bring
anyone with a degree in qualification
into your college so it’s the only
college in India where if you should
have a PhD or a master’s you’re
disqualified to come you have to be a
cop-out or a washout or a dropout to
come to our College you have to work
with your hands you have to have a
dignity of labour you have to show that
you have a skill that you can offer to
the community and provide a service to
the community so we started the Barefoot
college and we redefined professionalism
who is a professional or professional is
someone who has a combination of
competence confidence and belief a water
diviner is a professional but
traditional midwife is a professional a
traditional bonesetter
is a professional these are
professionals all over the world you’ll
find them in any inaccessible village
around the world and we thought that
these people should come into mainstream
and show that the knowledge and skills
that they have is universal it needs to
be using it should be applied you to be
shown to the world outside that these
knowledge and skills are relevant even
today so the college works
following the lifestyle and work style
of mathema gandhi you late in the flow
you sleep on the floor you work on the
floor there are no contracts no written
contracts you can stay with me for 20
years go tomorrow and no one can get
more than $100 a month you come for the
money you don’t come to Barefoot college
you come for the work and the challenge
you come to the Barefoot college that is
where we want you to try crazy ideas
whatever idea you have come and try
doesn’t matter if you fail battered
bruised you start again it’s the only
college where the teacher is the learner
and the learner is the teacher and it’s
the only color we don’t give a
certificate you are certified by the
community you serve you don’t need a
paper to hang on the wall to show that
you are an engineer so when they said
that they said well show us what is
possible what are you doing this is all
mumbo jumbo you can’t show it on the
ground so we built the first Barefoot
college in 1986 it was built by 12
barefoot architects who can’t read and
write
built on one dollar of 50 a square foot
150 peoples lived their work there
they’ve got the Agha Khan award for
architecture in 2002 but then they
suspected they thought there was an
architect behind it I said yes they made
the blueprints but the barefoot
architects actually it was constructed
to the college we are the only ones you
actually returned the award for $50,000
because they didn’t believe us and we
thought that they were actually casting
explosions on the barefoot architects of
Colonia I asked a forester i powered
paper qualified expert I said what can
you build in this place he had one look
at the soil and said forget it no way
nothing in work no no water rocky soil I
was in a bit of a spot and I said okay
I’ll go to the old man in the village
and say what should I grow in this pot
he looked quietly at me and said you
bury this
to build this you put this handle what
this is what it looks like today went to
the roof and all the women said clear
out the men should clear out because we
don’t want to share this technology with
the men
this is waterproofing the roof it is a
bit of jaggery bit of urine a bit of
other things I don’t know but it
actually doesn’t leak since 1986
it hasn’t leaked this technology the
women will not share with a man it’s the
only college which is fully solar
electrified all the power comes from the
Sun forty five kilowatts of panels on
the roof and everything works out the
fun for the next 25 years so long as the
Sun shines I have no problem with power
for the beauty is that it was installed
by a priest a Hindu priest who’s only
done eight years of primary schooling
never been to school never been to
college you know more about solar than
anyone I know anywhere in the world
guaranteed food if you come to the
Barefoot college is solar cooked but the
people who fabricated that solar cooker
are women illiterate women who actually
fabricate the most sophisticated solar
cooker is a parabolic Schaeffler solar
cooker unfortunately they’re almost half
German they’re so precise
never find Indian woman’s so precise
absolutely to the last inch they can
make that cooker and we have sixty meals
twice a day of solar cooking we have a
dentist the grandmother illiterate was a
dentist she actually looks after teeth
of 7,000 children therefore technology
this was 1986 no engineer no architect
thought of it but we are collecting
rainwater from the roofs very little
water is wasted all the roofs are
connected underground to a 400,000 litre
tank and no water is wasted if we have
four years of round we still have water
in the campus because we collect
rainwater sixty percent of children
don’t go to school because they have to
look after animals sheep goats domestic
chores so we thought of starting a
school at night for the children because
the night schools of Colonia over
seventy five thousand children have gone
through these night schools because it’s
for the convenience of the of the child
it’s not for the convenience of the
teacher and what do we teach in these
schools
democracy citizenship how you should
measure your land what you should do if
you’re arrested
what should you feel if you if your own
animal is sick this is what we teach in
the night schools but all the schools
are solar lit every five years we have
an election between six to fourteen year
old children participate in a democratic
process and they elect a prime minister
the Prime Minister is 12 years old he
looks after 20 goats in the morning but
she’s Prime Minister in the evening she
has a cabinet minister for Education
Minister of Energy Minister for health
and they actually monitor and supervise
150 schools for 7,000 children she got
the world’s children’s prize five years
ago and she went to Sweden first time
ever going out of a village never seen
Sweden wasn’t dazzled at all by what was
happening and the queen of Sweden which
they turned to me and said can you ask
this child where she got her confidence
from she’s only 12 years old which is
not dazzled by anything and the girl who
sits on a left turned to me and looked
at the Queen straight in the eye and
said please tell her I am the Prime
Minister
where this percentage of illiteracy is
very high we use puppetry puppet is the
way we communicate
you have Joakim cha-cha who’s 300 years
old
he is my psychoanalyst he’s my teacher
he’s my doctor he’s my lawyer he’s my
donor
he actually raises money solves my
disputes he solves my problems in the
village if there’s tension in the
village if the attendance in the schools
go down and there’s a friction between
the teacher and the parent the puppet
calls the teacher and the parent in
front of the whole village and says
shake hands the attendance must not drop
these puppets are made out of recycled
World Bank reports
so this decentralized demystified
approach of seoul electrifying villages
we’ve covered all over India from Ladakh
up to Bhutan all solar electrified
villages by people who have been trained
and we went on the dock and we asked his
woman this at minus 40 you have to come
out of the roof because there’s no place
was all snowed up on both sides and we
asked this woman what was the benefit
you had from solar electricity and she
thought for a minute and said it’s the
first time I can see my husband’s face
in winter
men to Afghanistan one lesson we learned
in India was many are unattainable
men are restless men ambitious men are
compulsively mobile and they all want a
certificate
all across the globe you’ll have this
tendency of men wanting a certificate
why because they want to leave the
village and go to a city looking for a
job so we came up with a great solution
trained grandmothers what’s the best way
of communicating in the world today
television no Telegraph no telephone no
tell a woman so we went you have done is
done for the first time and we picked
three women and said we want to take
them to India they said impossible they
don’t even go out of the room then you
want to take them to India
I said I’ll make a concession I think
the husbands along as well so I took the
husbands along of course the women were
much more intelligent than the men in
six months how do we train these women
sign language you don’t use the written
word you don’t use the spoken word you
use sign language and in six months they
can become solar engineers
they go back and soul Electrify their
own village this woman went back and
soul electrified the first village set
up a workshop the first village ever to
be solar electrified in Afghanistan or
by the three women
this woman is an extraordinary
grandmother fifty-five years old and
she’s soul electrified two hundred
houses for me in Afghanistan and they
haven’t collapsed she actually went and
spoke to an engineering department in
Afghanistan at all the head of a
department the difference between AC and
DC didn’t know those three women have
trained 27 more women and soul
electrified 100 villages in Afghanistan
we went to Africa and we did the same
thing all these women sitting in one
table from the eight nine countries all
chatting to each other not understanding
a word because they all speak in a
different language but the body language
is great they’re speaking to each other
and actually becoming solar engineers I
went to Sara Leone and there was this
Minister driving down the dead of night
comes across this village comes back
goes to it goes into the village says
bahar what’s the story they said these
two grandmother’s grandmother’s minister
couldn’t believe what was happening
where did they go went to India and back
went straight to the president he said
you know there’s a solar electrified
village in Sierra Leone
he said no half the cabinet went to see
the grandmothers the next day what’s the
story so he summoned me and said can you
train me hundred fifty grandmothers I
said I can’t mr. president but they will
the grandmother so he built me the first
barefoot training center in Sierra Leone
and 150 grandmothers are being trained
in Sorelli on Gambia I went to select
the grandmother in Gambia went to this
village I knew which woman I would like
to take the community got together and
said I’ll take these two women I said no
I want to take this woman misadvised she
doesn’t know the language
you don’t know I said no I like the body
language I like the way she speaks
difficult husband not possible call the
husband husband came so I can in
politician mobile in his hand not
possible why not
the woman look how beautiful she is I
said yeah she’s very beautiful what
happens if she runs off with an Indian
man that was the biggest fear I said
he’ll be happy she’d ring up in a mobile
she went like a grandmother and came
back like a tiger she walked out of the
plane and spoke to the whole press as if
she was a veteran she handled the
national press and she was a star and
when I went back six months later said
where’s your husband
Oh somebody doesn’t matter good night
success story
now you just wind up by saying and I
think you don’t have to look for
solutions outside look for solutions
within and listen to people they have
the solutions in front of you
they’re all over the world don’t even
worry don’t listen to the world bank
listen to the people on the gravel they
have all the solutions in the world
I’ll end with a quotation by Matt McGann
first they ignore you then they laugh at
you then they fight you then you win
thank you