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For activist Nirmala Purandare, training barefoot teachers in Maharashtra does not stop at education. It's an attempt to usher in a social revolution
Pune-based Nirmala Purandare began working with students in the early-'70s, when she was asked to take care of rural students who came to the city for higher education. But she was bothered by one question. "I felt that those who made it so far constituted a very small percentage. Why did the rest of the rural children give up their education mid-way or never go to school at all? My attempts to seek an answer to this query led me to this process of taking education to the doorsteps of rural children," says Purandare, who was recently honoured with the Baya Karve Award instituted by the Maharshi Karve Stree Shikshan Sanstha. Driven by a desire to not only provide basic educational facilities to those living in remote areas but also to build up a pool of trained women who would be harbingers of change, Purandare established the Vanasthali Rural Development Centre (VRDC) on December 21, 1981. The objective was simple: to get semi-educated village women to sign up for a six months' teacher training programme that would enable them to start balwadis (nurseries) in their villages. "So far, we have trained more than 10,000 women who had dropped out of school in the sixth grade. They had never made any use of their elementary education and had confined themselves to living a conventional life of looking after the family and fighting the many odds in most of our villages. These women are now not the same. With new-found confidence, they have gone from home to home, urging parents to send their children between the ages of three and six to attend balwadi classes so as to learn the basics of language and arithmetic, as also hygiene. These teachers are now preparing a whole new generation of students who are quite enthused about completing their basic education," says Purandare. The VRDC works in eight districts of Maharashtra. Around 40 trained teachers conduct training programmes in the talukas, making it convenient for rural women to attend classes and fulfil their domestic responsibilities. "What we drill into their minds is the concept of strengthening the foundation for a child's future interest in education. The reason why the dropout rate in rural schools is very high is that there are no facilities for pre-primary education. The child enters primary school totally unprepared and either rebels against the system or loses interest altogether," Purandare explains. Proof that the organisation is moving in the right direction is the increasing number of rural women queueing up for its training programmes. Between April 2002 and March 2003, 18 programmes were conducted in Sangamner, Parandwadi, Jejuri, Shrirampur, Sinnar and Udgir, training a total number of 436 candidates. An important fallout of the training programmes is that balwadi teachers begin to function as multipurpose workers. Purandare explains: "They inculcate the values of education, family planning, nutrition, healthcare and hygiene and take on the role of effective communicators for the village in dealing with local governing bodies. Moreover, their new status in the village prompts other women to change their perspective on education. We have had cases where illiterate women are now adamant about sending their children to balwadis or zilla parishad schools because they see the teacher as a role model." Additionally, trained teachers are given the opportunity to tap their creativity. This is evident in the various artefacts at the VRDC office, made by teachers out of onion peel and candy sticks. "We also publish magazines with contributions by the teachers and organise study tours to keep them updated on the activities in model villages, towns and cities," says Purandare. Things are not as easy as they sound for Purandare and her team of committed social workers. "Many of our trained teachers have opted to take up jobs in government schools instead of starting balwadis. This is something that we cannot prevent. But our satisfaction lies in the fact that we have come a long way from 1979 when we experimented with a batch of 30 women in Shirur taluka," says Purandare. Gradually moving into the area of women's empowerment, VRDC is busy devising schemes to enable women to make the best use of local resources to generate income. At a village near Somtane Phata, on the Pune-Mumbai highway, women have come forward to learn rickshaw driving. "We will help them learn driving, acquire licences and also obtain loans," says Purandare. In a country with 20 crore illiterate people, 70% of whom are women, activists like Purandare are striving hard to change the statistics. -- Huned Contractor Contact: Vanasthali Rural Development Centre
318/19 B Canal Road,
Model Colony,
Pune - 400016
Tel: 25651550
E-mail:
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InfoChange News & Features, March 2004
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