The work of the Barefoot College does not stop when that great blinding orb that powers life on earth vanishes below the horizon, however.

In the evening, Laxman drove us into the village, where girls obliged to do housework and look after the livestock during the day attend night school.

Talk about dedication to learning.

Twenty-seven girls between the ages of six and fourteen sat cross-legged upon mats in the dust underneath a tarpaulin in the dim light of a solar-powered lantern, passing around slates and chalk to begin the evening’s lesson. The girl facing the camera in this photo was fascinated, and couldn’t stop turning around to gawk at us.

Most of the girls, Laxman explained, are from low-caste families who were further impoverished when they sold their farm land in this village in order to make way for a new highway. The families know how to farm, he said, but not how to save or invest their money.

Although primary education is free, he said, their families see more value in utilizing their daughters’ labor than in educating them — though boys are often sent to school.

Learning at the night school is based on daily life — basic literacy, numeracy and knowledge of agriculture, health and water. None of these girls will likely ever get more than a fifth-grade education, Laxman said.

But that is enough, at least, to equip them for a life of conducting basic business and looking after their families. Apparently when a woman has five years of education or more, her children are healthier.

It was only here in this place that the true horror of the caste system struck me. I hadn’t really thought much about it before.

Over three thousand years, such venerables as the Buddha and Gandhi — and no doubt countless others in between them – tried and failed to do away with it.

Now the inequities persist still, especially in rural life, Laxman said — although now the distinction between castes is more a factor of economics than of religious power structures. (For a fantastic and wildly illuminating take on caste, pick up The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga.)

Until more value is placed on education, it’s hard to see that changing.

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