Bunker Roy

It is the only College in India built by the poor for the poor and for the last 38 years managed and controlled and owned by the poor following the life-style and work-style of Gandhi. It is based on very simple living, eating, living, and working on the floor where people come for the challenge rather than the money. No one in the college can earn more than $150 a month.”

It is the only college in the world where paper degrees, diplomas and doctorates are a disqualification because the worth of the person is judged by his or her honesty, integrity, compassion, practical skills, creativity and their ability to work with people without discrimination.

The Barefoot College of Tilonia, India demonstrates that illiteracy is not a barrier to poor communities developing themselves and that the most sophisticated of technologies can be disseminated by poor rural men and women who can barely read and write. The Barefoot College strongly believes that it is a myth that the development of poor rural communities requires people with formal degrees and qualifications. The Barefoot

College has extended its informal training programs to empower a growing number of female solar power engineers, and the Barefoot approach to development has spread across India and around the world.

Today over 100 illiterate rural mothers and grandmothers from 15 countries in Africa have solar electrified nearly 6,000 houses and shown it is possible to have technically and financially self sufficient solar lectrified villages-the first of its kind in the world.  

The Barefoot Approach of the College has been replicated in 20 different remote village locations in l3 states of India and 21 countries all over the world.