Background: ‘Barli’ is a common female name among Bhilala Tribes in the districts where many trainees come from. Barli denotes the central pillar which supports the tribal house typical of these areas, highlighting the belief of the Institute that women are the central pillars of society. Based in Indore, the Institute conducts residential training programmes for rural, village and tribal women who did not get the opportunity of schooling and those who dropped out school.
Most of the trainees come from western Madhya Pradesh, many also come from other states and areas of India. Priority is given to the socially and economically disadvantaged, i.e, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and backward classes, the physically challenged, orphans, widows, divorce es, the abused and the neglected.In Chattisgarh region there are three extension centers in Kanker and Imlipara where the girls trained from Barli are running these centers.
Since over 4 decades the Institute's social actions have been positively addressing and impacting 10+ SDGs (sustainable development goals) of the UN.
Personality development: The curriculum of personality development includes to train them to conceive something, visualise, plan, organise, make action plans, become conscious decision makers, implementation and sharing their successes with others. The curriculum focuses on building sustainable societies, respecting and reinforcing the value of their culture, holistic education, especially focusing on the empowerment of the girl child, human values and virtues. The trainees are trained to become sensitive to social development issues, regarding work as worship and service as prayer. The training also fosters love, peace and unity. The women-trainees learn to discuss social issues and act to solve them, mobilising and developing local resources thus helping to build sustainable communities.
Health and Hygiene: The course has been designed to provide the necessary skills and develop rural by preventive measures and practical nutrition, the prevention of water-borne diseases, the value and importance of caring for the sick or elderly, the damaging effects of domestic violence. Trainees learn to replace superstitious practices through using medical knowledge and care from qualified doctors. The topics covered in this subject broadly encompass: management of low birth weight, the value of registration of birth and death, and knowledge of child diseases: causes, precautions and treatment. Pre and Post Natal Care. The trainees are trained in taking care of pregnant women, physiology of conception, symptoms of pregnancy, social practices relating to pregnancy, care for pregnant including immunisation, check ups, importance of rest, becoming a mother, and the responsibility of becoming a mother, and the role of the family.
Environmental care & conservation: The Institute teaches the trainees the importance of preserving our environment and helping the process of sustainable development. They regard care for the is titled: "Caring for the Environment" includes organic farming making organic manure, waste recycling, and harness the utility of herbs as valuable source of home and natural remedies. Value of indigenous knowledge, maintaining a healthy environment and caring for land, water, animals and forest resources are some of its main issues covered in this curriculum. Caring for the Environment Planting, maintaining and protecting trees, learning about the sources of buying seeds,plants,learning about energy conservation, techniques like composting, vermi-culture,recycling water & soil, re-use of biodegradable and other products, i.e. waste management (composting and recycling).All bathroom, washing, kitchen and sewerage water are separated at source, and after treatment are used in agriculture.A selected portion of farm waste is mixed with waste paper to make briquettes to be used as a fuel when it is not possible to cook with solar cookers.
Solar Cooking and Vegetable Drying: The Institute created a milestone in its history, in 1998 when its first solar cooker was installed. Institute uses solar cookers (Scheffler cookers) for cooking food for 100 inmates for 300 days a year, 3 meals a day. This saves about 12 LPG cylinders each month. for other NGOs. With the help of Gadhia Solar Systems a large kitchen of five 10-metre parabolic dishes was built at Shraddhanand Orphanage in Indore. A kitchen with 4 dishes designed for cooking for 300 children was erected in a remote area of Dhar district. The trainees are also encouraged to adopt a solar-lifestyle, wherein we train them in use and maintenance of SK 14 solar cookers which are portable and are of smaller size and are very economical. These cookers can cook 3 meals for a family of 5-6 people very easily. The trainees are given hands on training for 3 days at the end of every 6 month course, and they are also given the solar cookers to take them home with them after training. Solar drying of vegetables and spices.
Over the last several years all surplus vegetables and spices are being dried in specially designed low cost solar tunnel driers for use later when most vegetables are in short supply. Herbs, spices and fruits and also being dried in this way. These can be easily stored and packaged, and used when there is scarcity. Thus the solar technology is being used in the Institute for ensuring food security by providing year-round nutrition for the trainees. As result we were able to start a process of use of solar cookers in the rural areas where the need for the use of non-conventional energy is greater and the fuel wood was very scarce. Use of SK 14 solar cooker by the trainees in their homes has multiple benefits like: saving fuel costs, reducing the toil of collecting fuelwood from forests, gender safety (women feel much safer with these) for e.g. when collecting wood from remote forests they might face abuse or molestation from forest officials and others, and also there is a danger of wild animals and snakes etc, attacking them en-route. In many cases SK14 has proved to be gender-friendly, as the menfolk in villages love to cook on them. At the time of writing, the Institute had supplied more than 450 SK14 and K14 solar cookers to the community members living in rural areas.
