An initiative of Barefoot College (BC), Tilonia which has perhaps won more international goodwill and appreciation for India in the third world — where Indian diplomats have a reputation for sanctimonious lecturing about ways and means to further the cause of international peace, justice and development, while unmindful of their own shabby front and backyards — is its sustained programme for training GWBSEs (grandmother women barefoot solar engineers) from developing nations, and Africa in particular. Introduced in 2005, thus far (September 2010) the GWBSE programme which mainly trains grandmothers on the premise that grannies are invariably more committed to their village hearths and homes, BC has ‘graduated’ 215 GWBSEs from 26 countries including Kenya, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Chad, Bur-kina Faso, Congo as also Colombia, Jordan, Gautemala and Peru.
Under this unique programme, illiterate and semi-literate grand-mothers are interviewed and selected personally by BC’s founder-director Bunker Roy (“to assess their commitment to their villages”) and flown into the college, where they undergo a six-month residential training programme under the supervision of a BC-trained Indian faculty of 25 master trainers including eight women. In a refreshing departure from traditional diplomacy, the entire travel, food, lodging and training expenses of GWBSEs are borne by the Union ministry of external affairs.
“During their stay here, WBSEs from abroad are thoroughly trained not only to assemble and repair electric circuits — which contain 35 components — but also to connect them with bought out solar panels and storage batteries and to install and maintain integrated solar energy units back in their villages. The training programme is based on learning by doing and presents communication challenges, as the trainees are usually illiterate and don’t speak any language but their own,” says Bhagwat Nandan, a member of BC’s core committee and head of the solar energy unit since 1985.
The diplomatic impact in terms of goodwill for the government and people of India generated by BC’s GWBSE programme is worth many multiples of the annual expense (Rs.1.2 crore in fiscal 2010-11) incurred. “While they are here, grandmothers from all over the world not only train to become solar engineers, but also learn about rainwater harvesting and witness first-hand the socio-economic changes of BC’s education and women’s empowerment programmes. When they return to their villages and communities, they become agents of change and development. And in the nights when their villages are lit up while surrounding areas are in darkness, presidents, prime ministers, dictators and policy makers notice and hopefully, are inspired,” says Bunker Roy.