Barefoot College

Barefoot College, established in 1971, is involved in upgrading and applying traditional knowledge and skills and building the capacity and confidence of illiterate and semi-literate unemployed rural youth. It has reached over 500,000 rural poor families and has replicated the concept in 13 states in India. It has received several awards, including the Save the Dryland Award from the United Nations Environment Programme (1997), Agfund (2000), the Stockholm Challenge, the World Technology Award, the Nasdaq Educational Award from the Tech Museum in San Jose, the St Andrews Prize (2002), the Tyler Prize (2004) and the Alcan award (2006).