Director: Annemie Maes
Duration: 00:01:19; Aspect Ratio: 1.738:1; Hue: 355.409; Saturation: 0.380; Lightness: 0.486; Volume: 0.104; Cuts per Minute: 12.762; Words per Minute: 321.313
Summary: Leela Devi is one of the first rural Rajasthani women to have enrolled in the solar workshops organised by Barefoot College (
http://www.barefootcollege.org). In fact, she teaches other rural women from Asia and Africa, who are students at the college's solar engineering programme.
This interview was done as part of the Politics of Change (PoC) project.
For more on PoC, see
http://pad.ma/TF/info
For the finished film 'Mahila', see
http://pad.ma/TL/info
Technology is a valuable input for social transformation, but the most important force is human agency and creativity: the microlevel initiatives and everyday activities of real human beings.
In the context of the Politics of Change project, I had interviewed Leela Devi (43, solar engineer) with the aid of a questionnaire (
http://pad.ma/TF). Her responses are below:
Leela Devi :
"I am a teacher and a student and a student and a teacher.
My and my husband's parents arranged our marriage long before my husband started his further studies. The education-level difference between us was never a point, but now I can discuss problems with my husband. He's very supportive. If there is something I don't understand, he explains it to me.
Every woman can stitch but I wanted to do something completely different. And solar energy is very different! In the beginning I never thought I would never be able to understand it, but now I feel very comfortable and I like doing it.
I came here as a student and now I'm a teacher and it feels great to teach something that I learnt for so many years. Now it's my turn to teach what I learned and it feels great. I teach the Bhutanese girls in sign language and we work with the color codes for the resistors and capacitors. That's the easiest way to start. But sometimes they even don't understand the names of the colors. Then we have to point to the clothes we are wearing to explain the Hindi or English word, and they learn us the Bhutanese word in return.
Up until now I didn't have the opportunity to travel abroad to my students' countries, but of course I'm very interested in their homeland and their habits and once I would like to go and see.
We've put up five solar systems in my village, and if it needs maintenance or reparations I take care of it. I would love to learn about the solar cookers too, but as teacher and trainer for the solar workshops I have a lot of work. We have many students, so there is no time for me to follow an extra training for the moment. But if they need help at the solar cooker section, and if I have the time, I go and give them a hand.
I can say that I'm educated now. This is the biggest change for me compared to before.
Once the women get a paid job they become independent and that's the argument Barefoot uses to convince women to come here. The number of women increased a lot the past 5 years and the women ratio will even grow if there are more jobs available. The college staff motivates them and explains that men and women are equal and both of them can do these jobs."
I came here as a student and now I'm a teacher and it feels great to teach something that I learnt for so many years. I teach the Buthanese girls in sign language and we work with the color codes for the resistors and capacitors. That's the easiest way to start. But sometimes they even don't understand the names of the colors. Than we have to point to the clothes we are wearing to tell them about hindi or english words. They learn us the Buthanese word in return. In their language red is 'rato'.
Up till now I did not have the opportunity to travel abroad to my students countries, but of course I'm very interested in their land and their habits and once I would like to go and see.
I would like to go and work at other places but only if they send me there and if it's related to Barefoot. I don't want to leave here.
I would love to learn about the solar cookers too. But as teacher and trainer for the solar workshops I have a lot of work. We have a lot of students, so there is no time for me to follow an extra training for the moment. But if they need help at the solar cooker section, and if I have the time, I go and give them a hand.
We've put up 5 solar systems in my village, and if it needs maintenance or reparations I take care of it. I even go to other villages when required.
Since the beginning of the campus there has been a lot of changes in habits and in interaction. For myself I can say that I'm educated now, this is a big change for me compared to before.
Once the women get a paid job they become independent and that's the argument Barefoot uses to convince women to come here. The number of women increased a lot the past 5 years and the women ratio will even grew if there are more jobs available for women. They are motivated by the staff of the college. They are explained that men and women are equal and both of them can do these jobs.
I like the fact to meet all these different people from different places. From small villages and from other countries. To discuss with them, to teach them about solar energy.
The Barefoot project started very small and now it grew out in such a big campus. People can come up with propositions for new trainings and there are a lot more people interested.
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