The Good Harvest School is a long-term effort to educate and champion the women farmers of tomorrow in hopes that they make the right choice both for themselves and the planet Ashita and Anish Nath made a surprising life change in 2013. After having lived and worked in Delhi for close to a decade, they quit their corporate jobs and returned to their home state of Uttar Pradesh to follow newer passions.
While visiting Anish's farm and interacting with the farmers, Ashita keenly felt the disparity in education levels between city and village schools. To make matters worse it was mostly the boys who went to school in the village. "Girls were held back at home to do household chores. Slowly, we reached a point where we couldn't ignore it anymore. So, we decided to open our farm doors to girls and give them the same quality of education as compared to city-based schools. And to create better opportunities for them in the future, we incorporated agriculture a subject in the curriculum," say
It was observing the plight of farmers first hand that led to the inception of an agricultural school. "Spending four years in a village where farmers are discouraged and choosing alternative jobs to earn, we realised that agriculture is not a viable option for them anymore. We have farmers' children who don't want to dirty their hands. They prefer watching pirated movies on mobiles. Sadly, they are all set to sell the land as soon as they inherit. And then migrate," says Ashita.
Agriculture is not a male-dominated field. It is actually women who outdo men. From selecting seeds, preparing and sowing to transplanting the seedlings, applying manure and then harvesting, winnowing and threshing- women stay longer on the field than men. Yet we fail to recognise their hard work. The Good Harvest School is a small and a long-term effort to groom young girls from the beginning to make right choices. Whether it is about defecating in open or discouraging their parents to sell off the field. And we have to start early on," says Ashita.
Since there was no precedent on which to base their model, Ashita and Anish went with a balance of creativity and necessity when designing the curriculum for the school. "Many of our students can't even read and they are above 10 years of age. We consider each one's learning level, interest, their readiness and pace to learn a certain concept and put them in different groups for different subjects.
She adds, "We don't push academics on them. It is important for them to feel safe and happy at the school. Whenever we enroll a new student, we have a long discussion with parents and try to understand their background. We have a good stock of play materials. We have cows, rabbits, ducks and plenty of greenery. But I think what really helped us is that we live among them. From Monday to Friday all of us stay at the school."
And, of course, since it is an agricultural school, instilling sustainable agricultural values is at the core of this education. "We are not even sure how many will choose farming when they grow up. But we want to equip them well if they want to kick start their career in agriculture. We teach them sustainable agri-methods. Currently, our pupils are too young to fully understand the impact of their choices. But we are sure slowly they'll get the big picture and give their best to protect the nature. We are trying to instill good agri-values early on and turn them into habits.
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