TEDGlobal 2011
Bunker Roy: Learning from a barefoot movement
Filmed:
Readability: 3.1
4,300,944 views
In Rajasthan, India, an extraordinary school teaches rural women and men -- many of them illiterate -- to become solar engineers, artisans, dentists and doctors in their own villages. It's called the Barefoot College, and its founder, Bunker Roy, explains how it works.
Bunker Roy - Educator
Sanjit “Bunker” Roy is the founder of Barefoot College, which helps rural communities becomes self-sufficient. Full bio
Sanjit “Bunker” Roy is the founder of Barefoot College, which helps rural communities becomes self-sufficient. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:15
I'd like to take you to another world.
0
0
4000
00:19
And I'd like to share
1
4000
2000
00:21
a 45 year-old love story
2
6000
4000
00:25
with the poor,
3
10000
3000
00:28
living on less than one dollar a day.
4
13000
3000
00:33
I went to a very elitist, snobbish,
5
18000
4000
00:37
expensive education in India,
6
22000
4000
00:41
and that almost destroyed me.
7
26000
3000
00:46
I was all set
8
31000
2000
00:48
to be a diplomat, teacher, doctor --
9
33000
3000
00:51
all laid out.
10
36000
4000
00:55
Then, I don't look it, but I was the Indian national squash champion
11
40000
3000
00:58
for three years.
12
43000
2000
01:00
(Laughter)
13
45000
2000
01:02
The whole world was laid out for me.
14
47000
3000
01:05
Everything was at my feet.
15
50000
2000
01:07
I could do nothing wrong.
16
52000
3000
01:10
And then I thought out of curiosity
17
55000
2000
01:12
I'd like to go and live and work
18
57000
2000
01:14
and just see what a village is like.
19
59000
2000
01:16
So in 1965,
20
61000
2000
01:18
I went to what was called the worst Bihar famine in India,
21
63000
4000
01:22
and I saw starvation, death,
22
67000
3000
01:25
people dying of hunger, for the first time.
23
70000
3000
01:28
It changed my life.
24
73000
3000
01:31
I came back home,
25
76000
2000
01:33
told my mother,
26
78000
2000
01:35
"I'd like to live and work in a village."
27
80000
3000
01:38
Mother went into a coma.
28
83000
2000
01:40
(Laughter)
29
85000
3000
01:43
"What is this?
30
88000
2000
01:45
The whole world is laid out for you, the best jobs are laid out for you,
31
90000
3000
01:48
and you want to go and work in a village?
32
93000
2000
01:50
I mean, is there something wrong with you?"
33
95000
2000
01:52
I said, "No, I've got the best eduction.
34
97000
2000
01:54
It made me think.
35
99000
2000
01:56
And I wanted to give something back
36
101000
3000
01:59
in my own way."
37
104000
2000
02:01
"What do you want to do in a village?
38
106000
2000
02:03
No job, no money,
39
108000
2000
02:05
no security, no prospect."
40
110000
2000
02:07
I said, "I want to live
41
112000
2000
02:09
and dig wells for five years."
42
114000
3000
02:12
"Dig wells for five years?
43
117000
2000
02:14
You went to the most expensive school and college in India,
44
119000
3000
02:17
and you want to dig wells for five years?"
45
122000
2000
02:19
She didn't speak to me for a very long time,
46
124000
4000
02:23
because she thought I'd let my family down.
47
128000
3000
02:28
But then,
48
133000
2000
02:30
I was exposed to the most extraordinary knowledge and skills
49
135000
3000
02:33
that very poor people have,
50
138000
2000
02:35
which are never brought into the mainstream --
51
140000
3000
02:38
which is never identified, respected,
52
143000
2000
02:40
applied on a large scale.
53
145000
2000
02:42
And I thought I'd start a Barefoot College --
54
147000
2000
02:44
college only for the poor.
55
149000
2000
02:46
What the poor thought was important
56
151000
2000
02:48
would be reflected in the college.
57
153000
3000
02:52
I went to this village for the first time.
58
157000
2000
02:54
Elders came to me
59
159000
2000
02:56
and said, "Are you running from the police?"
60
161000
2000
02:58
I said, "No."
61
163000
2000
03:00
(Laughter)
62
165000
3000
03:04
"You failed in your exam?"
63
169000
2000
03:06
I said, "No."
64
171000
2000
03:08
"You didn't get a government job?" I said, "No."
65
173000
3000
03:11
"What are you doing here?
66
176000
2000
03:13
Why are you here?
67
178000
2000
03:15
The education system in India
68
180000
2000
03:17
makes you look at Paris and New Delhi and Zurich;
69
182000
3000
03:20
what are you doing in this village?
70
185000
2000
03:22
Is there something wrong with you you're not telling us?"
71
187000
3000
03:25
I said, "No, I want to actually start a college
72
190000
3000
03:28
only for the poor.
73
193000
2000
03:30
What the poor thought was important would be reflected in the college."
74
195000
3000
03:33
So the elders gave me some very sound and profound advice.
75
198000
4000
03:37
They said, "Please,
76
202000
2000
03:39
don't bring anyone with a degree and qualification
77
204000
3000
03:42
into your college."
78
207000
2000
03:44
So it's the only college in India
79
209000
3000
03:47
where, if you should have a Ph.D. or a Master's,
80
212000
3000
03:50
you are disqualified to come.
81
215000
2000
03:52
You have to be a cop-out or a wash-out or a dropout
82
217000
5000
03:57
to come to our college.
83
222000
3000
04:00
You have to work with your hands.
84
225000
2000
04:02
You have to have a dignity of labor.
85
227000
2000
04:04
You have to show that you have a skill that you can offer to the community
86
229000
3000
04:07
and provide a service to the community.
87
232000
3000
04:10
So we started the Barefoot College,
88
235000
3000
04:13
and we redefined professionalism.
89
238000
2000
04:15
Who is a professional?
90
240000
2000
04:17
A professional is someone
91
242000
2000
04:19
who has a combination of competence,
92
244000
2000
04:21
confidence and belief.
93
246000
3000
04:24
A water diviner is a professional.
94
249000
3000
04:27
A traditional midwife
95
252000
2000
04:29
is a professional.
96
254000
2000
04:31
A traditional bone setter is a professional.
97
256000
3000
04:34
These are professionals all over the world.
98
259000
2000
04:36
You find them in any inaccessible village around the world.
99
261000
4000
04:40
And we thought that these people should come into the mainstream
100
265000
3000
04:43
and show that the knowledge and skills that they have
101
268000
3000
04:46
is universal.
102
271000
2000
04:48
It needs to be used, needs to be applied,
103
273000
2000
04:50
needs to be shown to the world outside --
104
275000
2000
04:52
that these knowledge and skills
105
277000
2000
04:54
are relevant even today.
106
279000
4000
04:58
So the college works
107
283000
2000
05:00
following the lifestyle and workstyle of Mahatma Gandhi.
108
285000
4000
05:04
You eat on the floor, you sleep on the floor, you work on the floor.
109
289000
4000
05:08
There are no contracts, no written contracts.
110
293000
2000
05:10
You can stay with me for 20 years, go tomorrow.
111
295000
3000
05:13
And no one can get more than $100 a month.
112
298000
3000
05:16
You come for the money, you don't come to Barefoot College.
113
301000
3000
05:19
You come for the work and the challenge,
114
304000
2000
05:21
you'll come to the Barefoot College.
115
306000
2000
05:23
That is where we want you to try crazy ideas.
116
308000
3000
05:26
Whatever idea you have, come and try it.
117
311000
2000
05:28
It doesn't matter if you fail.
118
313000
2000
05:30
Battered, bruised, you start again.
119
315000
3000
05:33
It's the only college where the teacher is the learner
120
318000
3000
05:36
and the learner is the teacher.
121
321000
3000
05:39
And it's the only college where we don't give a certificate.
122
324000
3000
05:42
You are certified by the community you serve.
123
327000
3000
05:45
You don't need a paper to hang on the wall
124
330000
2000
05:47
to show that you are an engineer.
125
332000
3000
05:52
So when I said that,
126
337000
2000
05:54
they said, "Well show us what is possible. What are you doing?
127
339000
3000
05:57
This is all mumbo-jumbo if you can't show it on the ground."
128
342000
4000
06:01
So we built the first Barefoot College
129
346000
3000
06:04
in 1986.
130
349000
3000
06:07
It was built by 12 Barefoot architects
131
352000
2000
06:09
who can't read and write,
132
354000
2000
06:11
built on $1.50 a sq. ft.
133
356000
3000
06:14
150 people lived there, worked there.
134
359000
4000
06:18
They got the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2002.
135
363000
3000
06:21
But then they suspected, they thought there was an architect behind it.
136
366000
3000
06:24
I said, "Yes, they made the blueprints,
137
369000
2000
06:26
but the Barefoot architects actually constructed the college."
138
371000
4000
06:31
We are the only ones who actually returned the award for $50,000,
139
376000
3000
06:34
because they didn't believe us,
140
379000
2000
06:36
and we thought that they were actually casting aspersions
141
381000
4000
06:40
on the Barefoot architects of Tilonia.
142
385000
3000
06:43
I asked a forester --
143
388000
2000
06:45
high-powered, paper-qualified expert --
144
390000
3000
06:48
I said, "What can you build in this place?"
145
393000
3000
06:51
He had one look at the soil and said, "Forget it. No way.
146
396000
2000
06:53
Not even worth it.
147
398000
2000
06:55
No water, rocky soil."
148
400000
2000
06:57
I was in a bit of a spot.
149
402000
2000
06:59
And I said, "Okay, I'll go to the old man in village
150
404000
2000
07:01
and say, 'What should I grow in this spot?'"
151
406000
3000
07:04
He looked quietly at me and said,
152
409000
2000
07:06
"You build this, you build this, you put this, and it'll work."
153
411000
2000
07:08
This is what it looks like today.
154
413000
3000
07:12
Went to the roof,
155
417000
2000
07:14
and all the women said, "Clear out.
156
419000
2000
07:16
The men should clear out because we don't want to share this technology with the men.
157
421000
3000
07:19
This is waterproofing the roof."
158
424000
2000
07:21
(Laughter)
159
426000
2000
07:23
It is a bit of jaggery, a bit of urens
160
428000
3000
07:26
and a bit of other things I don't know.
161
431000
2000
07:28
But it actually doesn't leak.
162
433000
2000
07:30
Since 1986, it hasn't leaked.
163
435000
3000
07:33
This technology, the women will not share with the men.
164
438000
3000
07:36
(Laughter)
165
441000
3000
07:39
It's the only college
166
444000
2000
07:41
which is fully solar-electrified.
167
446000
4000
07:45
All the power comes from the sun.
168
450000
2000
07:47
45 kilowatts of panels on the roof.
169
452000
2000
07:49
And everything works off the sun for the next 25 years.
170
454000
2000
07:51
So long as the sun shines,
171
456000
2000
07:53
we'll have no problem with power.
172
458000
2000
07:55
But the beauty is
173
460000
2000
07:57
that is was installed
174
462000
3000
08:00
by a priest, a Hindu priest,
175
465000
3000
08:03
who's only done eight years of primary schooling --
176
468000
3000
08:06
never been to school, never been to college.
177
471000
3000
08:09
He knows more about solar
178
474000
2000
08:11
than anyone I know anywhere in the world guaranteed.
179
476000
4000
08:17
Food, if you come to the Barefoot College,
180
482000
2000
08:19
is solar cooked.
181
484000
3000
08:22
But the people who fabricated that solar cooker
182
487000
3000
08:25
are women,
183
490000
3000
08:28
illiterate women,
184
493000
2000
08:30
who actually fabricate
185
495000
2000
08:32
the most sophisticated solar cooker.
186
497000
2000
08:34
It's a parabolic Scheffler solar cooker.
187
499000
3000
08:40
Unfortunately, they're almost half German,
188
505000
4000
08:44
they're so precise.
189
509000
2000
08:46
(Laughter)
190
511000
2000
08:48
You'll never find Indian women so precise.
191
513000
3000
08:52
Absolutely to the last inch,
192
517000
2000
08:54
they can make that cooker.
193
519000
2000
08:56
And we have 60 meals twice a day
194
521000
2000
08:58
of solar cooking.
195
523000
2000
09:00
We have a dentist --
196
525000
2000
09:02
she's a grandmother, illiterate, who's a dentist.
197
527000
3000
09:05
She actually looks after the teeth
198
530000
2000
09:07
of 7,000 children.
199
532000
3000
09:11
Barefoot technology:
200
536000
2000
09:13
this was 1986 -- no engineer, no architect thought of it --
201
538000
3000
09:16
but we are collecting rainwater from the roofs.
202
541000
3000
09:19
Very little water is wasted.
203
544000
2000
09:21
All the roofs are connected underground
204
546000
2000
09:23
to a 400,000 liter tank,
205
548000
2000
09:25
and no water is wasted.
206
550000
2000
09:27
If we have four years of drought, we still have water on the campus,
207
552000
3000
09:30
because we collect rainwater.
208
555000
2000
09:32
60 percent of children don't go to school,
209
557000
3000
09:35
because they have to look after animals --
210
560000
2000
09:37
sheep, goats --
211
562000
2000
09:39
domestic chores.
212
564000
2000
09:41
So we thought of starting a school
213
566000
3000
09:44
at night for the children.
214
569000
2000
09:46
Because the night schools of Tilonia,
215
571000
2000
09:48
over 75,000 children have gone through these night schools.
216
573000
3000
09:51
Because it's for the convenience of the child;
217
576000
2000
09:53
it's not for the convenience of the teacher.
218
578000
2000
09:55
And what do we teach in these schools?
219
580000
2000
09:57
Democracy, citizenship,
220
582000
2000
09:59
how you should measure your land,
221
584000
3000
10:02
what you should do if you're arrested,
222
587000
2000
10:04
what you should do if your animal is sick.
223
589000
4000
10:08
This is what we teach in the night schools.
224
593000
2000
10:10
But all the schools are solar-lit.
225
595000
3000
10:13
Every five years
226
598000
2000
10:15
we have an election.
227
600000
2000
10:17
Between six to 14 year-old children
228
602000
4000
10:21
participate in a democratic process,
229
606000
3000
10:24
and they elect a prime minister.
230
609000
4000
10:28
The prime minister is 12 years old.
231
613000
3000
10:32
She looks after 20 goats in the morning,
232
617000
2000
10:34
but she's prime minister in the evening.
233
619000
3000
10:37
She has a cabinet,
234
622000
2000
10:39
a minister of education, a minister for energy, a minister for health.
235
624000
3000
10:42
And they actually monitor and supervise
236
627000
2000
10:44
150 schools for 7,000 children.
237
629000
3000
10:49
She got the World's Children's Prize five years ago,
238
634000
2000
10:51
and she went to Sweden.
239
636000
2000
10:53
First time ever going out of her village.
240
638000
2000
10:55
Never seen Sweden.
241
640000
3000
10:58
Wasn't dazzled at all by what was happening.
242
643000
2000
11:00
And the Queen of Sweden, who's there,
243
645000
2000
11:02
turned to me and said, "Can you ask this child where she got her confidence from?
244
647000
3000
11:05
She's only 12 years old,
245
650000
2000
11:07
and she's not dazzled by anything."
246
652000
3000
11:10
And the girl, who's on her left,
247
655000
3000
11:13
turned to me and looked at the queen straight in the eye
248
658000
3000
11:16
and said, "Please tell her I'm the prime minister."
249
661000
3000
11:19
(Laughter)
250
664000
2000
11:21
(Applause)
251
666000
8000
11:29
Where the percentage of illiteracy is very high,
252
674000
4000
11:33
we use puppetry.
253
678000
3000
11:36
Puppets is the way we communicate.
254
681000
3000
11:45
You have Jokhim Chacha
255
690000
3000
11:48
who is 300 years old.
256
693000
4000
11:52
He is my psychoanalyst. He is my teacher.
257
697000
3000
11:55
He's my doctor. He's my lawyer.
258
700000
2000
11:57
He's my donor.
259
702000
2000
11:59
He actually raises money,
260
704000
2000
12:01
solves my disputes.
261
706000
3000
12:04
He solves my problems in the village.
262
709000
3000
12:07
If there's tension in the village,
263
712000
2000
12:09
if attendance at the schools goes down
264
714000
2000
12:11
and there's a friction between the teacher and the parent,
265
716000
2000
12:13
the puppet calls the teacher and the parent in front of the whole village
266
718000
3000
12:16
and says, "Shake hands.
267
721000
2000
12:18
The attendance must not drop."
268
723000
2000
12:22
These puppets
269
727000
2000
12:24
are made out of recycled World Bank reports.
270
729000
2000
12:26
(Laughter)
271
731000
2000
12:28
(Applause)
272
733000
7000
12:35
So this decentralized, demystified approach
273
740000
4000
12:39
of solar-electrifying villages,
274
744000
2000
12:41
we've covered all over India
275
746000
2000
12:43
from Ladakh up to Bhutan --
276
748000
3000
12:48
all solar-electrified villages
277
753000
2000
12:50
by people who have been trained.
278
755000
3000
12:54
And we went to Ladakh,
279
759000
2000
12:56
and we asked this woman --
280
761000
2000
12:58
this, at minus 40, you have to come out of the roof,
281
763000
3000
13:01
because there's no place, it was all snowed up on both sides --
282
766000
3000
13:04
and we asked this woman,
283
769000
2000
13:06
"What was the benefit you had
284
771000
2000
13:08
from solar electricity?"
285
773000
2000
13:10
And she thought for a minute and said,
286
775000
2000
13:12
"It's the first time I can see my husband's face in winter."
287
777000
4000
13:16
(Laughter)
288
781000
3000
13:19
Went to Afghanistan.
289
784000
2000
13:21
One lesson we learned in India
290
786000
5000
13:26
was men are untrainable.
291
791000
4000
13:30
(Laughter)
292
795000
4000
13:34
Men are restless,
293
799000
2000
13:36
men are ambitious,
294
801000
2000
13:38
men are compulsively mobile,
295
803000
3000
13:41
and they all want a certificate.
296
806000
2000
13:43
(Laughter)
297
808000
2000
13:45
All across the globe, you have this tendency
298
810000
3000
13:48
of men wanting a certificate.
299
813000
2000
13:50
Why? Because they want to leave the village
300
815000
3000
13:53
and go to a city, looking for a job.
301
818000
3000
13:56
So we came up with a great solution:
302
821000
3000
13:59
train grandmothers.
303
824000
2000
14:03
What's the best way of communicating
304
828000
2000
14:05
in the world today?
305
830000
2000
14:07
Television? No.
306
832000
2000
14:09
Telegraph? No.
307
834000
2000
14:11
Telephone? No.
308
836000
2000
14:13
Tell a woman.
309
838000
2000
14:15
(Laughter)
310
840000
3000
14:18
(Applause)
311
843000
4000
14:22
So we went to Afghanistan for the first time,
312
847000
2000
14:24
and we picked three women
313
849000
2000
14:26
and said, "We want to take them to India."
314
851000
2000
14:28
They said, "Impossible. They don't even go out of their rooms,
315
853000
2000
14:30
and you want to take them to India."
316
855000
2000
14:32
I said, "I'll make a concession. I'll take the husbands along as well."
317
857000
2000
14:34
So I took the husbands along.
318
859000
2000
14:36
Of course, the women were much more intelligent than the men.
319
861000
3000
14:39
In six months,
320
864000
2000
14:41
how do we train these women?
321
866000
3000
14:44
Sign language.
322
869000
2000
14:46
You don't choose the written word.
323
871000
3000
14:49
You don't choose the spoken word.
324
874000
2000
14:51
You use sign language.
325
876000
3000
14:54
And in six months
326
879000
2000
14:56
they can become solar engineers.
327
881000
4000
15:00
They go back and solar-electrify their own village.
328
885000
3000
15:03
This woman went back
329
888000
2000
15:05
and solar-electrified the first village,
330
890000
3000
15:08
set up a workshop --
331
893000
2000
15:10
the first village ever to be solar-electrified in Afghanistan
332
895000
3000
15:13
[was] by the three women.
333
898000
3000
15:16
This woman
334
901000
2000
15:18
is an extraordinary grandmother.
335
903000
2000
15:20
55 years old, and she's solar-electrified 200 houses for me in Afghanistan.
336
905000
5000
15:25
And they haven't collapsed.
337
910000
3000
15:28
She actually went and spoke to an engineering department in Afghanistan
338
913000
3000
15:31
and told the head of the department
339
916000
2000
15:33
the difference between AC and DC.
340
918000
2000
15:35
He didn't know.
341
920000
2000
15:37
Those three women have trained 27 more women
342
922000
3000
15:40
and solar-electrified 100 villages in Afghanistan.
343
925000
3000
15:43
We went to Africa,
344
928000
3000
15:46
and we did the same thing.
345
931000
2000
15:48
All these women sitting at one table from eight, nine countries,
346
933000
3000
15:51
all chatting to each other, not understanding a word,
347
936000
3000
15:54
because they're all speaking a different language.
348
939000
2000
15:56
But their body language is great.
349
941000
2000
15:58
They're speaking to each other
350
943000
2000
16:00
and actually becoming solar engineers.
351
945000
2000
16:02
I went to Sierra Leone,
352
947000
3000
16:05
and there was this minister driving down in the dead of night --
353
950000
3000
16:08
comes across this village.
354
953000
2000
16:10
Comes back, goes into the village, says, "Well what's the story?"
355
955000
3000
16:13
They said, "These two grandmothers ... "
356
958000
2000
16:15
"Grandmothers?" The minister couldn't believe what was happening.
357
960000
3000
16:18
"Where did they go?" "Went to India and back."
358
963000
3000
16:21
Went straight to the president.
359
966000
2000
16:23
He said, "Do you know there's a solar-electrified village in Sierra Leone?"
360
968000
2000
16:25
He said, "No." Half the cabinet went to see the grandmothers the next day.
361
970000
3000
16:28
"What's the story."
362
973000
2000
16:30
So he summoned me and said, "Can you train me 150 grandmothers?"
363
975000
4000
16:34
I said, "I can't, Mr. President.
364
979000
2000
16:36
But they will. The grandmothers will."
365
981000
2000
16:38
So he built me the first Barefoot training center in Sierra Leone.
366
983000
3000
16:41
And 150 grandmothers have been trained in Sierra Leone.
367
986000
4000
16:45
Gambia:
368
990000
2000
16:47
we went to select a grandmother in Gambia.
369
992000
3000
16:50
Went to this village.
370
995000
2000
16:52
I knew which woman I would like to take.
371
997000
2000
16:54
The community got together and said, "Take these two women."
372
999000
3000
16:57
I said, "No, I want to take this woman."
373
1002000
2000
16:59
They said, "Why? She doesn't know the language. You don't know her."
374
1004000
2000
17:01
I said, "I like the body language. I like the way she speaks."
375
1006000
3000
17:04
"Difficult husband; not possible."
376
1009000
2000
17:06
Called the husband, the husband came,
377
1011000
2000
17:08
swaggering, politician, mobile in his hand. "Not possible."
378
1013000
3000
17:11
"Why not?" "The woman, look how beautiful she is."
379
1016000
3000
17:14
I said, "Yeah, she is very beautiful."
380
1019000
2000
17:16
"What happens if she runs off with an Indian man?"
381
1021000
2000
17:18
That was his biggest fear.
382
1023000
2000
17:20
I said, "She'll be happy. She'll ring you up on the mobile."
383
1025000
3000
17:23
She went like a grandmother
384
1028000
3000
17:26
and came back like a tiger.
385
1031000
2000
17:28
She walked out of the plane
386
1033000
2000
17:30
and spoke to the whole press as if she was a veteran.
387
1035000
3000
17:33
She handled the national press,
388
1038000
3000
17:36
and she was a star.
389
1041000
2000
17:38
And when I went back six months later, I said, "Where's your husband?"
390
1043000
3000
17:41
"Oh, somewhere. It doesn't matter."
391
1046000
2000
17:43
(Laughter)
392
1048000
2000
17:45
Success story.
393
1050000
2000
17:47
(Laughter)
394
1052000
2000
17:49
(Applause)
395
1054000
3000
17:52
I'll just wind up by saying
396
1057000
6000
17:58
that I think you don't have to look for solutions outside.
397
1063000
4000
18:02
Look for solutions within.
398
1067000
2000
18:04
And listen to people. They have the solutions in front of you.
399
1069000
3000
18:07
They're all over the world.
400
1072000
2000
18:09
Don't even worry.
401
1074000
2000
18:11
Don't listen to the World Bank, listen to the people on the ground.
402
1076000
3000
18:14
They have all the solutions in the world.
403
1079000
3000
18:17
I'll end with a quotation by Mahatma Gandhi.
404
1082000
3000
18:20
"First they ignore you,
405
1085000
2000
18:22
then they laugh at you,
406
1087000
2000
18:24
then they fight you,
407
1089000
2000
18:26
and then you win."
408
1091000
2000
18:28
Thank you.
409
1093000
2000
18:30
(Applause)
410
1095000
31000
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Bunker Roy - EducatorSanjit “Bunker” Roy is the founder of Barefoot College, which helps rural communities becomes self-sufficient.
Why you should listen
Development projects the world over run into one crucial point: For a project to live on, it needs to be organic, owned and sustained by those it serves. In 1972, Sanjit “Bunker” Roy founded the Barefoot College, in the village of Tilonia in Rajasthan, India, with just this mission: to provide basic services and solutions in rural communities with the objective of making them self-sufficient. These “barefoot solutions” can be broadly categorized into solar energy, water, education, health care, rural handicrafts, people’s action, communication, women’s empowerment and wasteland development. The Barefoot College education program, for instance, teaches literacy and also skills, encouraging learning-by-doing. (Literacy is only part of it.) Bunker’s organization has also successfully trained grandmothers from Africa and the Himalayan region to be solar engineers so they can bring electricity to their remote villages.
As he says, Barefoot College is "a place of learning and unlearning: where the teacher is the learner and the learner is the teacher."
Bunker Roy | Speaker | TED.com