Director: Annemie Maes
Duration: 00:01:18; Aspect Ratio: 1.738:1; Hue: 349.396; Saturation: 0.213; Lightness: 0.483; Volume: 0.070; Cuts per Minute: 13.057; Words per Minute: 254.218
Summary: This is an interview with Magan Kanwar, one of the first women solar engineers of Barefoot College (
http://www.barefootcollege.org). Before Magan started the workshops, she was living under the purdah system and never left her house. Now, she runs the solar energy training department at Barefoot College with her collegues Najma Nigam and Leela Devi.
For more on the Politics of Change project, 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 Magan Kanwar (40, solar engineer) with the aid of a questionnaire (
http://pad.ma/TF). Her responses are below:
Magan Kanwar :
"I belong to the Rajput-caste. The Rajput kings and queens were very rich, but there are also poor Rajputs.
My husband learned about Barefoot College through a village politician and he came here to have a look. He really liked the College approach and decided to stay. I followed my husband to Barefoot.
I got a lot of reactions from my village people because I wanted to get out of the purdah-system. Rajput woman are supposed to stay their whole life behind the purdah-curtain and are not allowed to see or meet other people.
My family and my in-laws were afraid I wouldn't be able to combine working, taking care of the kids and the household. But I convinced them that I would do everything to handle work and family and to manage all my work. And with the support of my husband I started my job at the college.
I work on the campus for 18 years now. I went to Bunker Roy myself and told him I wanted to work between people, even though I come from the Rajput purdah-system. When I came here, I was not educated and I thought I never would be able to learn about solar lighting. It was my husband who pushed me to go on with it.
It took a lot of time and it was very hard work but I'm glad I took the step. I see myself as an example. If I can get out of the purdah-system, then others can too.
In the beginning, everybody thought it was a fool's thing to work with illiterate people. But now many people from different countries come to Barefoot for the six month training we give them. I never thought it would have such an impact.
Nobody else is concerned about the destiny of poor rural women, but Barefoot encourages them to follow trainings and to learn a job. Part of their success is that they make women independent.
I would like to go from village to village and explain the women how important it is to get an education. I would like to motivate these women to start working.
I don't want to do what everybody is doing. I want to be different and therefore I'm interested in technology, because I think learning about technology can help me a step forward to make my life easier and more fulfilling."
green energy
women empowerment
women solar engineers
Barefoot College
Rajasthan
Tilonia
I belong to the Rajput-caste. We don't differentiate inside of the caste between different people. The Rajput kings and queens were very rich, but there are also poor Rajputs.
My husband knew about Barefoot College through a village politician and came here to have a look. He really liked the College approach and he decided to stay. I followed my husband to Barefoot.
I got a lot of reactions from my village people that I wanted to get out of the purdah-system. Rajput woman are supposed to stay their whole life behind the purdah-curtain and are not allowed to see or meet other people. But I decided to go for the training anyway.
My family and my in-laws were afraid I wouldn't be able to combine working, taking care of the kids and the household. But I convinced them that I would do everything to handle work and family and to manage all my work. And with the support of my husband I started my job at the college.
I belong to the Rajput-caste. We don't differentiate inside of the caste between different people. The Rajput kings and queens were very rich, but there are also poor Rajputs.
My husband knew about Barefoot College through a village politician and came here to have a look. He really liked the College approach and he decided to stay. I followed my husband to Barefoot.
I got a lot of reactions from my village people that I wanted to get out of the purdah-system. Rajput woman are supposed to stay their whole life behind the purdah-curtain and are not allowed to see or meet other people. But I decided to go for the training anyway.
My family and my in-laws were afraid I wouldn't be able to combine working, taking care of the kids and the household. But I convinced them that I would do everything to handle work and family and to manage all my work. And with the support of my husband I started my job at the college.
Pad.ma requires JavaScript.
