Page 40 - EducationWorld August 2022

Cover Story

BAREFOOT COLLEGE, TILONIA

SOMBRE GOLDEN JUBILEE OF INDIA'S

PIONEER COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Fifty years after its initiatives in rural education, healthcare,
solar energy, water conservation, handicrafts, waste
management and wasteland development have transformed
the lives of millions in the neglected outbacks of hinterland
India, the overwhelming majority of citizens are unaware of this
unique institution

Dilip Thakore

E ARLY THIS YEAR AS THE COUNTRY alum of the top-ranked The Doon School, Dehradun and

t
That half a century after Sanji ( ‘ B u nk e r’ ) Roy , an
was recovering from the unwarrantedly
St. Stephen’s College, Delhi forsook a promising career in
prolonged 82 weeks lockdown of all ed-
ucation institutions from preschool to
the civil service in favour of drilling open wells for drinking
water and irrigation in Tilonia, and 100 bone dry, water-
Ph D, the golden jubilee year of the pio-
neer but largely unsung, Barefoot Col-
lege, Tilonia, Rajasthan (BC, estb.1972)
istered the Social Work & Research Centre (SWRC) aka,
Barefoot College, this institution — felicitated by the Dalai
passed almost unnoticed. stressed villages in the desert state of Rajasthan and reg-
Apart from a few puppet shows and its annual Tilonia Lama, Prince Charles and Bill Clinton among other no-
Bazaar staged in Jaipur and Delhi and celebrations in Ti- tables — is largely unknown back home, is a telling com-
lonia (pop.4,000) and surrounding villages, the golden mentary on the indifference of the establishment to rural
jubilee of arguably the most successful and high-potential India which grudgingly hosts 60 percent of the country’s
initiative in rural education and development passed un- 1.30 billion citizens.
heralded. Because of sustained establishment — including The genesis of rural India’s backwardness is the Left turn
media — disconnect with rural India, the overwhelming taken by Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, a
majority of citizens are unaware of the existence of Barefoot natural sciences graduate of Cambridge University (UK),
College, let alone its pioneer initiatives in rural education, ignorant of elementary economics and the subcontinent’s
healthcare, solar energy, water conservation, handicrafts, long history of private enterprise. Born into the wealthy
waste management and wasteland development which have family of Motilal Nehru, perhaps the most successful law-
transformed the lives of millions in the neglected outbacks yer in pre-independence India, Jawaharlal was schooled
of hinterland India. in the elite Harrow College and Cambridge, where under

40 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2022