Barefoot College Shapes Rural Women To Engineers

Barefoot College Educating Rural Women's
It gives no degrees and the teachers and pupils often do not share a common language, but India's Barefoot College has been transforming the lives of rural women for four decades. All the pupils sitting on the floor or leaning on old desks are women, some of them illiterate grandmothers from remote villages. Almost everyone is poor, many are unable to read or write, and some come from as far away as Tanzania.

Magan Kanwar, who teaches solar engineering, remembers being told by her father-in-law she focus on knitting sweaters rather than dreaming of attending the school. She said “But I just wanted to do something more than cooking. This college gave me a chance to find the purpose of my life.

 

Their are lots of women at the school who have abusive husband and have heavily addicted to alcohol hence their studies give them some independence and crucially can secure an income and future for their children. “If there's no food for the kids at least the women can work and look after them, educate them, run the household”, she explained.

In order to overcome the language barrier, Kanwar users sign language and colour-coded circuits to explain the solar process. The founder of Barefoot College believes that the key to improving living conditions in poor areas is empowering rural women- the theme of this year's International Women's Day on Thursday. Training older women rather than focusing on men is the key, he said. He explained that “We deliberately confer no degrees, People are obsessed with the idea of getting degrees, certificates and recognition but we recognize the hands-on learning-by-doing process”.

At estimate 10,000 women students have passed through the college's doors, while alumni are running more than 800 night schools across India providing a multiplier effect as knowledge gets passed on by word of mouth.

About College : Barefoot College was started by a Social Entrepreneur Sanjit Bunker Roy in the year 1927 and has been breaking taboos ever since, educating women who are often second-class citizens discourage from getting an education. Located in Tilonia Village, 100 Kilometers (60 miles) from the capital of the western desert state of Rajasthan. Barefoot College is a collection of environmentally friendly dome-shape buildings. It has about a dozen teachers who give classes in subjects ranging from the basics of solar engineering, dentistry, mechanics or public health, to radio Djing.

Isn't that good! The step undertaken by the Barefoot College is really impressive and will make out good future for women's of Rural Areas.

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