::: LOK BHARTI - A Rural Revolution :::

Extension Work - Second step of Education

Introduction & Features

Since its establishment Lok Bharti has regarded extension work an essential part of higher education and has taken great care of the fundamental aspect of basic higher education and through extension work we have sought to make education correlated to society. It has made our extension work relevant, refreshing, and purposeful too.

The programmes of extension education work have undergone changes according to the changing times and the man in charge of the programme. Yet, social accountability of education, acceptance or acknowledgement of extension work as an integral part of education and spontaneous relationship of extension work with the educational activities have ever been significant.

Occasional events :
Many occasions such as celebration of national festivals in villages, rural camps, week-end programmes, placement with farmer-families, accident or natural calamities and relief-works undertaken during such disasters are used as means to carry out extension work as a part of useful educational activity. Moreover, students study the subject of “extension work” during first and second years of the college. A special teacher for extension is appointed as per the staff pattern of the education department.

It fulfills two objectives :
» It educates the students.
» It extends benefits to rural society

Permanent nature of work :
As a part of their programme the students of second and third years, all post graduate students and all the teachers go to an adopted or allotted village for extension-work on every Thursday afternoon for four hours. At present there are eight selected villages for such extension activities where the following activities are carried out in a well organized manner :

1.	Every student establishes close contact with at least five families in the village.
2.	Each group of students will visit such adopted village for three years.
3.	Each group under the guidance of the teacher will decide which are the four programmes to begin with on their entry in a particular village.
4.	They will select one of the four community activities such as Lok Dayro, Devotional songs or cultural programmes, exhibitions, village sanitation and cleaning, meeting of the villagers etc. to establish their mass contact with the entire village,
5.	They will select one activity for each group like the school, women are invited to visit Lok Bharti campus once where they are taken round the different sections of the institution, shown the video cassettes of “The Ramayana”, taught about child-care, household herbal remedies, increase milk production, saving-society, nutritious food and eradication of superstitions etc. Such programmes help to establish permanent relations and create awareness and understanding of our activities.

Rural Library :
Three Rural Libraries have been started to provide the best reading material to the people.

Fairs:
Religious fairs and farmer’s fairs are organized to make comprehensive appeal to the people. such fairs prove to be very useful and effective.

Adult education :
The students of Lokseva Mahavidyalaya had undertaken the challenging programme of cent percent literacy for Sanosara village which has a population of 12 thousand. First, our students conducted a survey of the village people and found out that there were 360 males and 533 females illiterate in Sanosara. Then the entire village was divided into three zones and 30 adult literacy centers were started. Not only literacy was imparted but the women of the village could overcome their everyday difficulties of reading sign boards of state transport buses and even learnt to read the names of villages on the roads too. This programme was implemented with the co-operation and assistance of Bhavnagar University.

Non Formal Education :
400 Non Formal Education Centers were conducted for the drop out children's of age group of 6-14 years. Total 10,000 boys and girls were given primary education of Gujarati , Maths and Environment through night classes.

The special feature of all other sections of Lok Bharti is that they also develop live contact with the rural society along with their extension work and by providing them information about new knowledge useful to them.