Swanirvar and non-formal education in Bengal

: What do you do if the standard textbooks published by the government are not very relevant when used in your environment? One innovative voluntary organization, Swanirvar, based in Andharmanik, West Bengal, decided that the solution is quite straightforward. Setting the text books aside, Swanirvar volunteers began to teach rural students in ways that they could relate to. And that, as we shall see, has made all the difference.

Swanirvar, which in Bengali means self-sufficiency, was founded as a voluntary organization to support and assist the needy in the villages of West Bengal. Started in 1989, It has now grown to be a full fledged Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). Swanirvar’s efforts have been focused on the villages in North 24 Parganas. The organization operates 3 Non-Formal Education (NFE) primary schools with nearly 300 students, and also imparts training to teachers from other NGOs.

The key to Swanirvar’s success has been its willingness to adapt the developmental effort to suit local conditions. The organization’s classrooms provide some interesting examples. In one instance, volunteers encountered a geography textbook which starts with the Chapter 1 on the Solar system and the Earth and eventually trickled down to maps of the world, India, and Bengal. A justifiable approach for formal education, perhaps, but not too helpful amongst students who have no concept of a world beyond their small villages.

Picture: Swanirvar’s Prathamik Vidyalay at Andharmanik, West Bengal.

Swanirvar volunteers simply abandoned the text book, and instead exposed the students to the same ideas with local examples. In the Swanirvar classroom, the teacher would ask the students questions on the following lines. “Which village are you from? How did you come to school from home? Let’s draw out the route on paper - a map - what do you see all along the way ?”, and so on. This permitted the children to understand geography far more readily.

Another example is from the history classes, with their elaborate textbooks, mostly chronicling the dates of the various battles waged against the foreign invaders whom the villagers had never heard of. The teachers found that the local environment offered far better examples than wars in faraway lands ever could. In their own “revised” syllabus, the teachers identify the oldest person in the family and through his narration, they help the children track the evolution of the village and its people. Also a number of visual and instructional aids like study cards, puppets, and toys, many of them manufactured locally from scrap objects, are widely used in the classroom to enrich the learning experience.

Another big difference from government-run schools is the effort to try and get the parents involved in the children’s education. This helps the teacher know the background of individual students better and provide the necessary individual support to the child as appropriate. Not surprisingly, parents who are involved closely with their child’s education were seen to take far more interest in furthering it, and even willing to make sacrifices to that end.

Swanirvar’s primary schools teach classes 1-4, and parents of students who leave class 4 are usually worried about returning their wards to the care of government-run schools. There is now a great demand on Swanirvar to continue their education programs beyond primary school. The next year promises to be critical for the future direction of Swanirvar’s educational activities. If the Education Bill - making primary education a fundamental right - is passed in Parliament, then it would give organizations like Swanirvar more room to try out the new techniques, and perhaps more funds as well.

Swanirvar’s efforts extend well beyond the classroom. West Bengal has been aggressively trying to maximize the production of rice - an extremely water-intensive crop. The “Boro” or winter rice production is almost totally dependent on tube-well water for irrigation. The extreme amounts of sub-soil water that has been drawn out has resulted in a dramatic drop in the water table. As if this were not bad enough, tubewell-water contains high levels of naturally occurring Arsenic, which is a major health hazard.

Combining awareness about health and knowledge about the environment, Swanirvar volunteers have been helping villagers experiment with alternative crops that require much less water. They have been successful in developing organic techniques for crops using green manure by growing the plant “Dhaenchay”, just before the plowing season. Once it grows, it is ploughed into the soil and upon decomposition acts as a fertilizer. An integrated pest management program also encourages villagers to allow some plants to grow tall, specifically so that they may become perches for birds, which then eat some of the insects, reducing the need for insecticides.

Swanirvar’s workers are also spreading the use of Azolla, a green plant that grows and spreads well in water. Its roots have nodules that fix atmospheric nitrogen and makes a good fertilizer. When grown in waterlogged paddy fields, Azolla not only reduces evaporation and hence the water requirement, but also prevents the growth of other weeds. They have also tried to introduce people to mushroom cultivation, as well as plants like cassava that produce more starch/nutrients per unit area. These can be sun-dried and used later.

On other fronts too, Swanirvar is making a mark. Volunteers noticed that medical emergencies devastate families far more than any other problems. Any illness that requires hospitalization, (particularly if the patient has to be taken to Calcutta) can easily divest the family of its life savings, or force them into debt even beyond that, so that they have to borrow from friends and relatives. The health care workers at Swanirvar are trying to emphasize prevention, and the use of some easily available home remedies rather to reduce the occurrence of such emergencies.

Health workers make regular home-visits to the villages to monitor, expectant mothers, and to conduct immunization programs. Swanirvar is also trying to encourage 10-16 year-olds to do socially useful and productive things that enhance their learning process. For example, children were trained to go around the village, ask questions and conduct surveys - about occurrence of diarrhea, sanitary conditions, and the effectiveness of the common herbal medicines. Then the students themselves analyze the data, and draw up charts, with help from the workers.

This year, Swanirvar will conduct a disability survey in the villages along with the “Kishor/Kishori Bahini” volunteers. Swanirvar, has now grown to be a major player in the lives of the villagers in and around Andharmanik. It isn’t merely a provider of education or an agency that provides solutions to agricultural problems and health care for the poor. Instead, Swanirvar is now a community organization which has taken an integrated approach to rural development, and in the process, made a remarkable difference to the lives of hundreds of people.

Palangat Murali

December 1999

Material for this article was obtained partly from ASHA’s Madison WI chapter, which India Together gratefully acknowledges. Swanirvar’s success stories greatly benefit from the concern and compassion of others who share its dream for a better tomorrow. Swanirvar can be contacted at:

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