Every morning, as I walk to the bus stand, I cross a local school here, a government school. I hear loud singing voices; the same songs every morning – the prayers and the national anthem. I pause and smile. School is such a beautiful feeling! Only when I am returning home in the afternoon do I mutter curses under my breath. Swarms of children run madly in all directions in and out of the school. With their uniform loosely hanging over their bodies and a few torn books falling out of their bags, I see the dismal picture of ‘education’. I wish these kids had a way to study at better schools, where they would truly be educated. There could also be an alternate option. Why not improve the quality of education in these government schools? That’s exactly what Sikshana does.

In 2002, Mr. E S Ramamurthy, retired chairman of BHEL in Bangalore wanted to work on a social cause. He started working with a primary school to understand their functioning and their problems. Initially he remained associated with aangan badis, overseeing the midday meal programmes. Yet, after it was taken up by the government, Ramamurthy decided to do something more. He decided to focus on the quality of education in government schools and act as a facilitator. The founder member of Sivasri Trust, which operates Sikshana, Ramamurthy started out in 2004. In the next one year, he could cover ten schools. Since then, there his idea has known no bounds. He gradually strengthened the Trust and found more board members. In 2007, one of the funders, Mr V.R. Prasanna, having returned from the US after 16 years, joined the Board as a fulltime Director.

Prasanna explains the Sikshana model, “I realised that the model was very successful and could be replicated. I joined as the Programme Director with a view to scale it up. It is a decentralized approach. We try to understand the basic needs of each school, based on the village and community conditions. The idea was to empower schools by disbursing funds and bring in management concepts. Since 99% of our schools are in rural areas, we noticed that students found it difficult to express what they knew. Hence, we focused on four skills – Read, Write, Compute and Express!”

What started with ten schools has today grown to 375 schools, covering almost 50 000 students. Sikshana acts as a facilitator, providing resources and guidance to the schools. In India, 90% of all children in the 6-14 age group attend a public school, which is why the Sikshana team felt that any meaningful effort to improve the educational standards of the new generation should necessarily start here. The value additions are countless. Take technology, for instance. Prasanna explains, “We started our initiative of providing one laptop per school and one pendrive per child. Being able to access a computer helps children overcome their fear of technology. Kids are even learning English faster, because of computers. We have English-Kannada dictionary installed in every system. We make sure every child comes forward to use the facility. We also help those who excel or are able to do better than the others by conducting summer technology camps for them. At the end of every year, we organise a computer summit, across schools. Two students from each school give presentations. This increases their confidence levels. We know that our students will be able to become whatever they want in life, because of the kind of exposure they get.”

Many individuals who want to make a difference in the society often wonder how they would do it all by themselves. When I look at Sikshana and the magnitude, impact and diversity of their projects, I am assured that anything is possible if you want it bad enough. Prasanna writes on the Sikshana blog, “With Sikshana yet to hit the 20 employee mark and the need to manage nearly 375 schools in 7 blocks, a question that naturally comes to one’s mind is how is Sikshana able to conduct such large events in addition to mentoring all the schools. I am seeing increasing signs of the teachers and the department taking ownership of Sikshana. An increasing number of teachers have started to believe in themselves.”

Thus, on one hand children are imbued with an enthusiasm to learn actively and on the other, the staff is more aware of its role and potential. With Skishana playing the facilitator, the day is not far when public schools will be at par with, if not superior to, the private schools.

India is a developing country with a developing population, developing economy, developing education. But is education really developing amongst the people who are born poor and underprivileged. Door Step School has taken the big leap to change the present and to make 100 percent literacy a reality. This is a group of people whose main motivation in life is ‘service to society’ and they believe the best way to do so is to usher in a wave of knowledge that engulfs the future of our nation – the children. Meet Mrs. Rajani Paranjpe, the founder member, who says “We go where ever the children are and start the class right there”.

School on Wheels

This inspiring lady, whose mission in life is spreading primary education, has closed many prisons as the saying by Victor Hugo goes “He who opens a school door, closes a prison”. When approached by The Better India for a brief glimpse into their world and how they work, she was kind enough to answer all our questions. Below is a detailed interview with Mrs. Rajani about her fantastic initiative, Door Step School:

What is the main objective that Door Step School is aiming at?

Hundred percent literacy through total school enrollment and quality education for all.
We bridge in the gaps in government’s efforts in achieving these goals. Our public education system faces three major problems in this regard, namely, non-enrollment, wastage (dropping out of school at early stage) and stagnation (not achieving the expected level of learning at respective stages in school). All our programs are designed to address these problems.

Education moves on to every door step – What was the initial thought process behind this philosophy?

I am a Social Worker by profession. I took this path because I always liked to work for and with people. So after nearly 15 years of my graduation (and infact 15 years of married life!) I took up a course in social work and after a few years of working in the field I joined the College of Social Work Nirmala Niketan, Mumbai, University of Bombay, as a member of faculty. I used to teach Research Methodology and Indian Social problems.

I selected Primary education as the mission of my life because I felt:

• Education or rather illiteracy was the problem we needed to address on a war footing
• Working with just one person in a family is usually sufficient because that person with a little education sees to it that his/her children get education.
• We focused on 3-18 age groups, because my experience says it is far easier to teach a child than to teach an adult.
• Messages such as health and family planning etc. can be given to a much larger population at much lesser cost if the population is literate.
• Education is one national problem which can be solved permanently once all the children are in school and are literate.

I made a plan to start four programs through Door step School. They are literacy classes (literacy is defined as being able to read a newspaper), study classes, pre-primary education and community libraries.

After having a clear idea of what I wanted to do, I shared it with like minded people one of whom was Ms. Bina SethLashkari, a student of mine for two years. She and a few others from the college joined hands with me and we founded the organization in 1988-89 in Mumbai.

We named our organization ‘Door Step School” because we go where ever the children are and start the classes right there. E.g. we held classes on pavements or on road construction sites, building construction sites outside big markets, railway stations etc. We have added a few more programs along the way but the core programs have remained the same.

What challenges did you face in the initial day? How did your team deal with them?

We did not face many major challenges as such. I think the following factors helped us in our smooth functioning:

• All of us who started the program were professional social workers and were in the field of social Work for some time before we started an organization.
• The field we have selected is relatively simple, the work is primarily developmental,
• The time was ripe for such activities and
• We had a very focused approach with clear plan in front of us.

However, after we started working with the children of construction workers, we faced the challenge of tracking them when they moved from one site to another. Our search for an effective solution to this problem is still on.

Could you provide a brief insight into the projects that you run?

Computer as a teaching aid

As I have mentioned earlier, all our programs are designed to address three major problems of our public education system. The target group is 3-14 (although we cater to children upto 18).
Pre-primary education serves two purposes – it prepares the child and the parents for schooling. On a more practical note it gives us the idea about which children are ready for school admission at the beginning of the next academic year. This ensures near-complete and timely enrollment.

For admitting children to school a birth or age certificate is required which many of the parents we deal with do not possess. We help them to get the age certificates and enroll children in school.

We provide school transport so that children attend school regularly which helps preventing school dropout and stagnation.

Study support classes to children attending school helps improve the quality of education which in turn reduces the chances of dropping out of school prematurely.

NFE (Non–Formal Education) classes helping reduce illiteracy.

School on Wheels, a bus which is designed as a class room helps us to take classes for children who are on streets and there is no place to gather them and teach them. It helps to cover those who would otherwise remain untouched.

School and Community Libraries as well as Reading Classes based in schools help in improving reading ability which is basic to any educational achievement

As an ending note, would you be able to tell us the difference that Door Step School has brought about on our society?

It is difficult to answer this question because the work we are doing is very small as compared to the need for such programs. Therefore I would rather not claim anything on the scale of society or nation.

However in the lives of children whom we have touched we have definitely made some impact or the other although this impact is not perceptible or measurable always. Some of our children have completed education and doing well in life. Some have left education midway and continued with their lives. It is their children who will benefit from the exposure we have given to their parents.
We experience this and we have many examples to show that a child who was with us even for a short time has nurtured a dream of sending his/her children to school and acts upon it when the time comes. We see this change in the attitude of ‘parents’ as our major gain. It shows that the root of education has struck in the family and now we do not have to worry. It will spread, we hope.

To know more about Door Step School, visit their website here: www.DoorStepSchool.org

Tip provided by a TBI reader, Zankhana Patel.

Twenty one year old Amol Pashilkar attempted his SSC examination in the year 2004-05. Unfortunately, he could not clear his examinations; he passed only in English. Since his confidence levels suffered a blow, he found it very difficult to reappear. After a four year long gap, in 2009, he took admission in Milind Night High School. With his renewed focus, could he clear the examinations?

Amol got 74% in his SSC. How did this drastic improvement come about? Amol could leap forward in academics because of the extra classes conducted by a Maharashtra based social organization that goes by the name Masoom. Masoom works with night schools in Mumbai, with the aim of improving academic performance of night school students.

Masoom is the first organization in Maharashtra to run a comprehensive intervention program for night schools. Masoom offers a unique approach to planning and implementing a comprehensive program for night schools based on their different needs. Masoom’s strategy for sustainable change is to work in the spirit of partnership with all major stakeholders in the education system. Because of Masoom, many like Amol could complete their education. Their interest in studies increases tremendously.

Tracing the beginnings

Nikita Ketkar, the founder of Masoom, stumbled upon the idea of helping night schools back in 2001. She was working in the civil services and was appointed on a project to identify child domestic workers, in the night school of Mumbai. Nikita adds, “I came across students who were largely self-motivated. They worked during the day and would attend classes in the evening. Nobody was forcing them to school. They came because they wanted to learn. It was sad to see that justice wasn’t being delivered to their aspirations.”

Masoom - Basic Science Concepts taught in a night school

In 2006, Nikita further undertook research related to problems faced by night school students, under the Pukar Scholarship. Based on the findings, she decided to do something about these issues. She resigned from office and founded Masoom in 2008, her entire research team by her side. To facilitate learning for night school students, Masoom has developed a three pronged approach:

1. Providing Infrastructure such as computers, Science laboratory apparatus, mathematic kits, library books, notebooks, educational charts, workbooks and worksheets, teacher training material, Braille textbooks and audio-visual material

2. Capacity Building by organizing training sessions and workshops for teachers, parents and students, vocational guidance for students, counseling, extra curricular classes such as Life skills, yoga, meditation

3. Advocacy: Masoom works closely with all stakeholders and intend to act as an advocate for all issues concerning night schools

Since night schools are run from 6:30 to 9:30 in the evening, most of these kids come after long hours of work. By providing meals, Masoom ensures that they can study more efficiently. Nikita adds, “We want to build not just academic strength but also employability. Many students who earlier had to study with an empty stomach could not focus. Now we provide meals. The kids call it ‘nashta’ as sometimes it is the only meal they have in the day.”

Sports as part of the night schooling

Members of Masoom

In its own unique way, Masoom has touched the lives of many students, growing from just two schools to now ten. There are courses called the ‘bridge courses’ that help drop outs overcome gaps and at the same time, there is facility of psycho counseling for students with learning disabilities. They also help link students to government certified computer courses, for which they have initiated scholarships for part funding. With such personal care and concern for holistic development, there are bound to be many many success stories like Amol’s.

Visit Masoom’s website here: http://masoomforu.org/

Walking on the heat-radiating Delhi road, I noticed a bunch of Government school children clad in their blue uniforms, aiming for the fruits on a ‘Jamun’ tree with stones. Their evening snack was happily hanging from the branches hidden by innumerable leaves growing in all directions. I wondered how these children managed their studies with hardly anybody at home to guide them. It is not that these children are any less intelligent than the children who are economically blessed, but it is just that they don’t the right kind of supervision.

The difference between the organization “People for Change” and me is that I simply thought about it while they worked on it. “People for Change” is an organization that conducts tuition classes for underprivileged children in order to guide them in the right direction and prepare them well for the future. The organization was founded two years back with mere five students in a play school’s building which was lent to them during evening hours. It is now situated in Dayal Bagh, Faridabad where they have an apartment to themselves, the rent of which is paid by one of the many donors. It has children from class third to tenth totalling up to a hundred students at present. They have recruited 2-3 teachers who help the students with their homework, prepare them for lessons in advance and also teach them various crafts like paper bag making, art, origami etc. An addition to the teachers there are a few college students who teach on a voluntary basis. The founders of this organization, Ms. Nellie Dhillon and Ms. Nisha Celly, also come to teach on a regular basis. They believe that it is only when the children get appropriate exposure that they will get encouragement to do better. In order to encourage the children to strive for excellence, the organization rewards the students who perform outstandingly well in their annual examination.

Education has evolved to become a blend of academic excellence and personality development. Working on these lines, “People for Change” conducts an annual function where all the children participate. In addition, they organize stitching, embroidery and other hobby classes during summer in the month of May. The aim of these hobby classes is to inculcate life skills in the children and to make maximum utilization of their free time.

“People for Change” would appreciate more citizens to come forward and help them in spreading education to the needy. As “People for Change” is an expanding not-for-profit organization, it needs more people to help their cause in any little way they can. Anybody willing is welcome to help in their mission to attain hundred per cent literacy. Details can be obtained at the following number: 9899401882

Libraries are as the shrine where all the relics of the ancient saints, full of true virtue, and that without delusion or imposture, are preserved and reposed. That is a famous quote by Francis Bacon.

Most of us who love reading cherish the time we spent as children in libraries scanning through books of various shapes and sizes with vivid covers and enticing titles. Libraries are the repositories of knowledge. But a large number of children are deprived of this wonderful experience; they don’t get to read which in effect does not inculcate in them the habit of studying.

AWIC, Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children, is a voluntary organisation working towards the promotion and development of literature for children in India. It represents writers, illustrators, librarians, editors and publishers. Founded by late K.Shankar Pillai in 1981, AWIC endorses the ethics and functions of the global organisation IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People), a non-profit which represents an international network of people from all over the world who are committed to bringing books and children together.

The various projects of AWIC include the following:

Children’s Library Project

Winner of the IBBY-ASAHI Reading Promotion Award, this project was started in 1983. Today 114 libraries in Delhi and across India have been setup under this voluntary scheme to promote reading. Each library is provided with free books. The project aims at making good books available to children who have no access to books .

Most of the libraries are managed by AWIC members on a voluntary basis. While most libraries function from the homes of AWIC members, some libraries have also been set up in parks, hospitals, railway platforms and slum areas for underprivileged children. Each year AWIC gives out one Best Librarian award and two Reader of the Year awards!

AWIC initiated IBBY library project – creating children’s libraries at Madi Village in Delhi (NCR), at Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh, at Jaipur, Rajasthan and Daman in Goa.

Literacy Project

In 1995 AWIC launched its Literacy Project and has published two Hindi alphabet books under its schemes, ‘Buy, Teach and Gift’ and ‘Teach and Gift’. Under the second scheme, AWIC distributes these books free in all Indian states, including remote areas where children have no access to good books.

Book Promotion

Book Promotion Cell promotes the cause of children’s books written by Indian authors by conducting book talks. Besides this, the organization participates in national and international children’s books fairs.

AWIC Book Therapy project

The Book Therapy Project is a particularly interesting one and was started after the 26/11 terrorist violence in Mumbai. It was started in order to promote the use of books to help children during those difficult times. Reading can be therapeutic; helping children come to grips with situations that create turmoil in their minds. Book Therapy helps children cope with such stressful situations, and even prepares them for further eventualities. Through workshops AWIC aims to train facilitators to administer book therapy and also develop books, including picture books and anthologies, which provide a healing effect to children.

If you have some free space in your home or office, you too can start a library for the underprivileged! For becoming a member of AWIC, all you need to do is download this application form http://www.awic.in/about-awic/AWIC-Membership-Form.pdf and fill it up and mail to the address provided in the form. 

Spread over a vast area of 170 acres of rocky wasteland in Kuppam, a deprived rural area in Andhra Pradesh, Agastya International foundation believes that complete learning is a combined form of shiksha (education), samskara (values) and sansara (world). It focuses on transforming the critical and much neglected area of primary and secondary education of the rural masses in India, including children and teachers.

Agastya does this by bringing hands-on science education to the rural masses through the use of outreach programs like “Science on Wheels” (Mobile Labs), Science Fairs, Teacher Development Program and Young Instructors Programs. Agastya seeks to fill the gaps in the Indian education system that threaten its socio-economic development. The conventional Indian education system instills little creativity in children and teacher education is generally divorced from classroom realities. Agastya’s projects overcome these problems with their unique features which involve idea generation and testing through the Creativity Lab, creativity generation for poor and disadvantaged through interactive and engaging learning methods, learning linked to environmental goals, emphasis on developing behavioral skills and a close link between teacher education and the classroom system.

Agastya: Science on Wheels

If you ever hear Ramji Raghavan (Founder, Agastya International Foundation) speak, you would certainly hear him talk about the learning pyramid as he strongly believes in the fact that we learn about 5% of what is taught to us in a lecture, 10% of what we read, 50% of what we see and hear, 70% of what we discuss with others, 80% of what we experience and 95% of what we teach. Ramji Raghavan, a former NRI banker came back to India with a vision of providing education to poor children and teachers – education that would be the opposite of conventional techniques and this led to the birth of Agastya, named after Mahirshi Agastya, famous for spreading sacred knowledge to south India, as a charitable trust in 1999.

Agastya has started off successfully on the path of building a creative India of ‘tinkerers, solution seekers and creators’ that are ‘ humane, anchored and connected’ by impacting over 3 million children and 120,000 teachers from vulnerable and disadvantaged communities. The model is scalable and replicable anywhere in the world.

You can take a look at Agastya’s visual documentation here.

Website: http://www.agastya.org/

This article is dedicated to one of the many unsung heroes bringing about a change. His name is Vipul Thaker, a simple man with simple dreams. Without going into his background, let me start from one of his birthdays. It was on that day when he decided he wanted to do something different. He decided to educate a Rabari (a tribe in Gujarat) child. A makeshift classroom was created on the terrace of his two bedroom house. As days passed by, Vipul went on to explore the talent in the slum surrounding his housing society. A few more students joined his class and subsequently the classroom was shifted to a light post on a nearby road. His class had no roof and was hence exposed to the harsh elements of the weather. The classes went on nevertheless. Every evening at around 09.00 pm the class would commence.

Within one year Vipul had around twenty children who worked in the day time and regularly attended his evening classes.

Looking at the progress of this informal school, the parents who belonged to the Rabari community came to his aid. They gifted Vipul with an empty hut to which the classes now moved. Of all the problems that Vipul faced, one was that of gender discrimination. The girls were not allowed to study. After much persuasion from Vipul, the parents were convinced and the girls walked in for the very first time. Within a month their strength doubled.

Vipul Thaker's school and students

This school wasn’t Vipul’s full time profession. He had a day job. He did receive some voluntary contribution from a few NRIs. After a point, he decided to admit his students in to a municipal school. Additionally, the evening classes were regularly conducted to ensure students did not miss out in case they didn’t go to school in the day.

Vipul had a dream to nurture – he wanted every child to get education on par with what their more privileged peers got. He negotiated with the private school principals, head masters, teachers and finally led to the introduction of a scholarship scheme. And so today out of forty students, around twenty five of them have been admitted to a school with better amenities for the students.

In the last few years, some of his students have shown their skills at the state level in the field of dramatic and graphic arts. Today he can proudly say that these children have something to look forward to. They have a future too. Vipul considers the renowned Gujarati educationist Gijubhai Badheka as his source of inspiration. He believes that Gandhian ideals too have been a prominent force behind his willingness to contribute selflessly.

The important thing, dear readers, is that this man and many more like him are actually striving to provide an identity to these children. They are providing a platform through which these children can express their ideas and needs.

Vipul and thousands of such grassroots revolutionaries are working towards bringing a constructive change in the society and we salute them for their relentless work in making a better India.

Amit Kataria comes from a humble background. Brought up in Choma village, Gurgaon, Haryana by his father, a farmer and mother, a housewife, he always dreamt of making a change in the society. Never having let his walking disability come in the way of his dreams, today he has successfully transformed the lives of many in his village by imparting computer literacy and in the process, setting a precedence worth following.

Amit’s journey began in 2007, “I completed my primary education in Choma but beyond that level of education, there was no opportunity there so I decided to study at a school in West Patel Nagar and passed my tenth and twelfth class there. In my final year, I came back to my village in 2006. I realized that most villagers owned land and money but they had little or no literacy especially in computing. They were ignorant of the need for computer skills. I found that this was the biggest need of my village and its future generations. That was when I decided to start a computer learning institute in my area.”

Students in Rose Computer Academy

With a vision to spread computer literacy throughout India, especially in rural areas, Amit started his venture ROSE Computer Academy in 2007, when he was only nineteen years of age. Having learnt computers, he realized its potential in making his community independent and in the long run, in contributing to strengthening of the economy and the nation at large. At no point of time did Amit lose heart in the face of difficulties even when finances were few and far between, he persisted. “I still remember September 7, 2005, the day when I had earned my first hundred rupees. When I set out to start my institute, I had twenty-three thousand rupees of savings. My maternal uncle agreed to lend me one lakh rupees and I could start my computer lab.”

Amit’s academy has so far trained 300 students from his village, offering courses such as Basic computing, Java, Graphic Designing, Tally, C++ and many others. His is the only academy in Palam Vihar, Gurgaon which offers different kinds of computer courses under one roof, working 18 hours a day. Some of his students have also gone ahead and opened their own enterprises, while others have taken up jobs. Some start working at the academy itself.

One of the students at ROSE Academy is seventeen year old Ashok Silwal. Born in a small village of Nepal, Ashok came to India in 2007. His father is a bus driver at a school in Gurgaon and had no money to support his education so he went back to Nepal and enrolled for a correspondence course in India. “In Gurgaon, my father met Amit Kataria sir. Sir needed an office boy, so I started working with him at the Academy. I soon developed an interest in learning computers. I completed a Certificate Course in Computer Application and Desk Top Publishing and also completed my schooling here. Then I started teaching at the ROSE Academy and earned salary also. Now I am able to contribute to my family too,” Ashok smiles, gleaming with pride.

ROSE Academy has provided computer skills and employment opportunity to many like Ashok. Besides computer education, ROSE Academy also provides learning assistance to students in their studies, considerably brining down the examination failure rate. As Amit puts it, “ROSE academy is like the rose flower that spreads its fragrance everywhere.” True to its name, the work and virtues of the Academy are an inspiration by every measure!

A less traveled track to Tilonia gives one a journey into Indian entrepreneurship and perhaps changes the way our villages are perceived by city dwellers. Tilonia brings you face to face with the real spirit of India. Its misty hopefulness uncovers the nature of the task that is ahead for a social entrepreneur, its uniqueness and challenges.

Tilonia is a small town 25 kms from Kishangarh near Ajmer in Rajasthan. Barefoot College, established in 1972, inspires this town with the conviction that solutions to rural problems lie within the community. These solutions are broadly classified by Barefoot College into solar energy, healthcare, education, water, rural handicrafts, people’s action, communication, women empowerment, income generation, wasteland development, electricity and power as well as social awareness and conservation of ecological systems in rural communities.

Barefoot College was founded by Sanjit ‘Bunker’ Roy, an Indian social activist and educator. Roy was influenced by the philosophy of Mao Zedong, and modeled his organization after Mao’s Barefoot Doctors. Roy has worked all his life with the Barefoot College.

Spread over more than 8 acres of land, the campus of Barefoot College was built between 1980 and 1986, designed by a team of rural ‘barefoot’ architects, masons, blacksmiths, farmers and members of women groups who sat and struggled through the initial basic designing of the campus. This institution believes in imparting informal, non-structured, on-the-job practical training by identifying the poor, unemployed youth who have been unable to finish their formal education and have returned to their respective villages as dropouts. The five principles which are an integral part of the functioning of the college are equality, collectiveness, self-reliance, decentralization and austerity.

The education program focuses on the overall development of rural children, with literacy being just one part of it. It encourages hands-on or learning-by-doing process of gaining knowledge and skills. Lessons are focused on awareness about the environment and socio-economic and political forces that dominate development. The aim is to provide the children with a right balance of education and literacy so that they choose to stay in their village and work for its development. The college has different programs for children and women. There are Balwadis (rural crèches) established for children between the age of 6 months-5 years for the convenience of working mothers. Night schools have been set up for ‘working children’. There are bridge courses, courses for night school children who aspire to join formal day schools. In these night schools, initiatives like the children’s parliament are established which allow them to participate in the management of their schools through a democratic process. Candidates are selected through a proper election process, giving them an idea of the working of a democracy.

There is also a huge emphasis on the holistic development of women by empowering them socially, financially and politically. In the past 38 years, the college has trained more than 15,000 women in jobs ranging from construction work, education, metal craftsmanship, toy making and solar engineering, to mechanical repair and fabrication, health care, water testing, handicrafts, film making and social activism.

Vocational Training at Tilonia

The Barefoot College has setup eight field centers in Rajasthan and a society known as SAMPDA (Society for Activating, Motivating and Promoting Developmental Alternatives) through the collective efforts of which the Barefoot approach is replicated in rural communities across 14 states in India.

The global response received by the organization is worth acknowledging. The institute has witnessed semi-literate middle aged woman traveling from places as diverse as Afghanistan, Cameroon, Gambia, Mali and Sierra Leone to undergo training to become barefoot solar engineers.

To know more about this organization and to read on some of its wonderful initiatives, please visit their website at www.barefootcollege.org.

We read, we learn, we understand. Sites like the one you are currently reading, along with countless other blogs, books, newspapers make up our reading spectrum. Make us aware, make us improve.

But what if we were to be visually impaired? How would we fare with a total lack of reading material? Did you know that most of the material available so easily to us is just not accessible for the visually impaired? In fact, only 0.5% of books are made accessible to the visually impaired in India. So, how do we ensure that those with visual impairment are able to read all those wonderful things that we come across regularly everyday?

This is where BookBole steps in. An initiative of Inclusive Planet, BookBole is a website that is designed for easy access for the visually impaired. Most visually impaired use text-to-speech converting software. Now, while there are standard guidelines for websites to ensure that text-to-speech software can easily ‘read’ them out, most websites do not adhere to these guidelines. The result is a lot of clutter and subsequent loss of information for the visually impaired. Bookbole solves this by making varied content available in easily accessible form.

The Problem

With the digitization of content as a result of the internet, as well as specific governmental and non-governmental initiatives to increase the volume of accessible content, there is now much more accessible content though the volume of content remains a major issue. However the problem is not just one of quantity but of relevancy i.e. of not just responding to general needs but specific user requirements. Large-scale global initiatives to make content accessible are just a drop in the ocean, albeit a very useful one. They can only cater to some needs of some people in some parts of world. With so much information captured in partially or fully inaccessible formats (print or digital non-readable formats) how does one respond to culture, language, industry and domain specific needs?

The Solution

The answer to this decentralized and hydra-headed problem is a decentralized community-driven solution. If similarly placed print and visually impaired across the world can connect with each other and share their efforts to fulfill their specific needs then there is a durable and dynamic solution at hand.

From books to class notes, journals to cooking tips, product reviews to personal stories. BookBole is all about the small stuff, but on a really large scale. A vibrant universe where people reach out, connect and fulfil each other’s needs. A universe created by aggregating the pools of accessible content that the visually impaired community has created for itself. A place where the value to the community of an individual effort is truly unlocked. Sharing that goes to the heart of the problem.

Bookbole.com is the consequence of this thought process. Designed exclusively for the 300 million-strong global print impaired community, it enables them to connect with each other and share accessible content, including books, notes, articles, blogs, audio recordings and so on, and furthermore, to build conversations around this content. It is a social network, with a difference. In the fashion of all things simple and useful, Bookbole will no doubt come to mean different things to different people across the world – a learning tool for some, an entertainment platform for others, and for all, a place to make friends and have conversations.

BookBole’s vision is that of a large, vibrant, pulsating community that shares useful content and conversations in a more-that-just-accessible environment, and where publishers and content-creators across the world, see the value of making available their content in mutual beneficial arrangements. Going forward, the largest community of visually and print impaired people in the world could see Bookbole become a social network, a content platform, a marketplace and a policy platform rolled into one. The makings of a true social venture.