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