The Barefoot College - Winner of the 1995 ESCAP HRD Award

health - education - employment - resources - youth - news

Training the Unemployable

A Portrait of the Barefoot College
WINNER OF THE 1995 ESCAP HRD AWARD

The philosophy of the Barefoot College, winner of the 1995 ESCAP HRD Award, is simple. Village youth are trained by their peers in higher skills that do not require degrees.

The skills taught are aimed at providing basic services to villagers: safe drinking water, sanitation, education and health care. The College is a non-formal training institute where young men and women are given practical skills by village teachers, often without formal qualifications. Teaching and learning are based on the day-to-day needs of the villagers.

The Barefoot College was chosen by a jury as the winner of the 1995 ESCAP HRD Award for its innovative approach in addressing the issue of promoting productive employment for youth. Youth unemployment takes away opportunities from people in a crucial stage of their personal development. In some countries, the influx of young people into the employment market is an acute problem. The numbers of youth entering the labour force is increasing particularly in countries with high fertility (see related story). Unemployment among youth is on average four times higher than among non-youth. Increasingly, community-based initiatives such as those of the Barefoot College, supporting informal sector activities, promoting self-employment and entrepreneurship, are necessary to address the problem.

With the simple approach of the Barefoot College, remarkable achievements have been made. Two generations of teachers, doctors and engineers have passed through the College. They are now providing basic services to support their communities. Once considered "unemployable", these graduates have become productive members of their villages.

"We have done nothing new. We have just used the skills already existing among rural communities..."

Rural youth have been trained and employed to run schools for boys and girls; training camps and workshops have been organized to upgrade the skills of young artisans. Trained as engineers and mechanics, the youth are providing such services as installing and maintaining solar electricity systems to provide basic lighting, and installing hand pumps to provide safe drinking water to over 1.8 million villagers. Since 1972, some 1,300 hand pumps were constructed in villages and are being maintained by rural youth, all graduates of the College. Also, some 80 night schools are providing literacy skills which benefit from a solar electrification system installed by the graduates.

Explaining the philosophy of the College, its director, Mr Bunker Roy, has stated: "The Barefoot College has done nothing new. We have just used the systems and skills already existing and accepted among rural communities." Why is such a simple approach so difficult to replicate? According to Mr Roy, "it is because we don't trust communities enough. We do not think the youth have the ability and analytical skills to identify and solve their own problems." Often, villagers are faced with people from an alien culture - doctors, teachers, engineers, sent from government centres with formal diplomas to provide services in the villages. "Experts and planners coming from an urban environment do not have faith in long-term processes. As a result, low-cost community-based alternatives, staring at us in the face, are never tried."

"Why is such a simple approach so difficult to replicate? Because we don't trust communities enough."

The theme for the 1995 Award was selected in commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the International Youth Year. The search for a winner commenced in early 1995. Candidacies were open to individuals and organizations, in both the Government and NGO sectors, in developing ESCAP countries. Areas of work included education and training, employment promotion, income generation and self-employment, enterprise creation, and credit extension. A total of 55 applications were submitted for the 1995 Award from 19 countries in the region. An international jury of experts met in February to screen the applications and make the final selection.

Some of the highlights of the work of the Barefoot College were shown in a short film during the Award presentation ceremony on 22 April 1996. Through the Award, the College's work will hopefully serve as a source of inspiration for further efforts to promote productive employment among youth in India and other countries of the region.

The College can be contacted at: The Social Work and Research Centre, Tilonia 305816, Madanganj District, Ajmer, Rajasthan, India, telephone (91) 1463-8804, fax (91) 1463-8806, or send directly an e-mail message.

1997 Award | 1996 Winner | 1996 Theme | Past Winners