Environment

Learn more

The Barefoot College works with communities to create clean and healthy environments.

Our work focuses on ecological restoration and sustainable waste management.

Greening the countryside

For almost 50 years, Barefoot College has been establishing drought-resistant plantations, transforming wastelands, degraded pasturelands and public grounds into thriving green spaces.

Our in-house nursery, established over 25 years ago, raises over 500 indigenous plants that provide valuable shade and enhance biodiversity and ecological resilience within rural communities.

Combining modern botany with the traditional acquired wisdom, our school tree planting campaigns teach young people about the importance of trees for nurturing the soil and improving the climate.

Students and staff learn about the variety of medicinal and other beneficial local plants that are threatened with extinction and the importance of conserving them for future generations.

Solid waste management in rural areas

India’s villages generate a staggering 128 million tonnes of solid waste every year, and without access to waste management services, much of this is left to pollute the environment.

In 2010 Barefoot College created a one-of-a-kind waste management programme involving local communities, governing bodies, volunteers, students, and young people from around India and the world.

Qualitative surveys and focus group discussions identified the need for a localised, community-centric waste management system that could create value while reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from open dumping and burning of waste.

Working directly with villagers, Barefoot College devised a low-cost, decentralised, community-led and replicable system which led to Rajasthan’s first zero-waste village, Chota Narena. Scaling up our approach, we help each community design and run its own system, emphasising the value of segregating waste at source.

Our work to make rural India waste and plastic free provides formal employment opportunities in a dignified environment for traditionally marginalised communities.

Barefoot College Impact

Greening the countryside

Barefoot College has planted over 60,000 native trees and plants, regenerating large areas of land and reducing temperatures in newly greened and shady areas. Individual homesteads have begun planting native trees and plants, showing that rural people appreciate them and understand their value.

Rural waste management

Each of the ten villages implementing the Barefoot College approach to waste management is creating four dignified jobs while reducing the negative impacts of open dumping and burning and benefitting some 2,200 households. Each year more than 110 tonnes of wet waste is being converted into organic compost, and 7.6 tonnes of materials are being recycled.

Stories of Change

Cleaner villages for a better life

Nandganesh, a resident of Gundli village, reports that in recent years there has been a surge in plastic waste in the villages. Such waste used to be dumped or burnt, harming both the environment and the villagers’ cattle, because the animals ate the plastic and died.

Now, however, the villagers have found a solution in a new system – segregating wet and dry waste within their households. Nandganesh is in favour of making a voluntary monetary contribution to the system’s running costs, and is pleased that other village residents feel the same.

Disrupting unfair systems

Ratan and his wife Rekha belong to the Valmiki community, commonly known as Maiter. Their ancestors were traditionally village cleaners. They are expected to clear streets of dead or decaying cattle and clean up rubbish after village gatherings, marriages and other events, with little participation from the upper castes. Such communities are often subject to systemic socio-economic oppression and discrimination. Additionally, because of the infectious nature of cleaning sewers and sceptic tanks, they are victims of disease for which they cannot afford to get treatment.

The Barefoot College waste management initiative aims to tackle built-in discrimination by educating people about waste disposal, and raising awareness of how waste can be managed and treated scientifically. Ratan recalls that collectively he and his wife earn ₹14000 a month from the Barefoot College system, and are able to take out health insurance for themselves and their dependents.

The Barefoot College model is initiating a change in mindset and attitude towards waste while providing a sense of dignity for the people engaged in waste collection.

Barefoot College Programmes for Impact

Water

Environment

Solar

Education

Livelihoods

Health

Communications