Page 48 - EducationWorld August 2022

Cover Story

the mindsets of thousands of allowed to Mother Teresa’s
rural communities in Ajmer Missionaries of Charity.
district. My wish is that the Thus was born Bare-
number of Barefoot colleges foot College International
should multiply around the Ltd (BCIL), a s.8 company
country and harness the pow- under the Companies Act,
er of rural women to make 2013 which was registered
India a prosperous nation,” in 2015 in Harmara village
says Lilawati Devi. in the Ajmer district. And
Nevertheless, though dur- one of the first initiatives
ing the past half century, that BCIL has undertaken
Barefoot College has totally in a big way is to modernise
transformed the landscape its administration and op-
of Rajasthan’s Ajmer district erations with introduction
and through its SAMPADA of new digital technolo-
(Society for the Advancement Fallone: scaling impatience fallout gies. According to Fallone,
Motivation of Peoples Action although SWRC/Barefoot
and Development Alternatives) net- Fallone. College and BCIL are now separate
work enabled establishment of clones Given her impressive academic and distinct entities, they have a com-
in 13 states of India, BC’s tried, tested qualifications and several decades mon heritage and similar goals. And
and proven rural development model work experience in the US and Eu- she is delighted to report that BCIL
has not been sufficiently scaled. Fifty rope, she was welcomed into the top has got off to a good start.
years after the college admitted its management of the college and ap- “My heart is full when I see the chil-
first batch of student-volunteers, ru- pointed CEO in 2011. However after dren of long standing BC staff, back
ral India is under-educated, poor and serving as CEO of SWRC/Barefoot at work with us and leading new pro-
backward, contributing a mere 16 per- College for over a decade, Fallone ex- grammes, community work and help-
cent of the country’s GDP. This ‘fail- perienced impatience with “slow scal- ing to build BCIL in India and abroad.
ure’ has strewn the apples of discord ing” of the institution. Many of these young people have gone
in SWRC/Barefoot College campus “The 2008 financial crisis caused on assignment to work in our inter-
and prompted an institutional schism. considerable disruption for non-prof- national locations for brief periods
N EW ZEALAND BORN Firstly, our donors became much their learning and new ideas. In the
its as our funding streams changed.
and have returned to India to apply
Meagan Fallone, a fine
new company we continue to run the
more results oriented and conscious
arts and engineering
able energy and Solar Mama training,
alumna of University of specific outcomes. They demand programs of the parent BC — renew-
professional practices, good gov-
College London and Harvard Univer- ernance, programme innovations community health and agri-livelihood
sity, first visited BC in 2010. “I was and alignment with UN Sustainable development, women’s entrepreneur-
amazed and excited with what I saw. Development Goals. Secondly, new ship, and establishment of more col-
The founding team led by Mr. and types of funding — CSR and impact leges abroad. Our team which is men-
Mrs. Roy have undoubtedly made an investment — entered the scene and tored by Bhagwat Nandanji, one of
indelible contribution to the rural de- the Central government tightened the founders of Barefoot College, has
velopment sector in India. The notion regulations relating to foreign fund- established new colleges in Senegal
of a formally educated and privileged ing received by NGOs,” says Fallone. and Guatemala this year and will in-
couple, leading a diverse team from Although Fallone is reluctant to augurate another in Fiji by the end of
rural and urban areas, contributing elaborate, “tightened government this year. Moreover, a high-potential
formal and informal skillsets to serve regulations” is undoubtedly a refer- new initiative has been the develop-
rural communities, was totally disrup- ence to the BJP/NDA government’s ment of digital content for rural areas
tive and extraordinary. Indisputably crackdown on offshore donations to that overcomes language and literacy
SWRC/Barefoot College has made an NGOs, many of whom are suspected barriers,” says Fallone.
incredible contribution to the India to be supportive of Islamic terrorism This digital content initiative in-
landscape overall and charted a new and religious proselytism, a red rag cludes design of a super app being
path for social enterprise in India, to the BJP, a Hindu majoritarian po- developed by Fallone in collaboration
heavily informing the global develop- litical party. Therefore, foreign dona- with Innoterra Zug, a Switzerland-
ment debate in ways that will reso- tions to Amnesty International were based agro-tech company promoted
nate for many years,” acknowledges proscribed and for a brief while dis- by Indian origin entrepreneur Ron Pal,

48 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2022