Page:SELECTED ESSAYS of Dr. S. S. KALBAG.pdf/182

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smallest village at a very low cost, unthinkable by any other method. The service enables the understanding of the technique by even school dropout girls, and the learning process makes the service available to remote villages. Now this is being done in 15 schools, spread over Central and Western Maharashtra. 2 The same rural girls are developing and learning new technologies that help income generation. ( Food products as an income source) 3 The rural girls and boys are now becoming familiar with modern multimedia computers, and in fact help to make lessons that will make learning easy and enjoyable. All our computers are made by us and maintained through rural youth. One representative from each of the schools was given training in for weeks in using the Computer (Windows operation, MS Word, PowerPoint, Access, and Excel and an Account system) and to assemble and dismantle the computer repeatedly until they feel confident. They have taken it to their villages and set up and started using. They can install, partition, and format hard disks and load operating systems and other programme. 4 Many rural girls have not only learnt the use of computers but also have contributed in making computer lessons for others and some are training students. 5 Many girls and boys have started their own enterprises with own or bank funds and the total output of our ex-students in this 25 km area alone is over 2 crores per year. Shubhangi Shinde (who is a polio victim is running a Poultry using our techniques and has a turnover of about Rs 70-80,000 per month; she is planning to have a 25% expansion. Sindhu Borhade ( education 5th standard) has a poultry with more than a one lakh turnover per month. Sunita Jadhav makes and sells Chikki , a snack, she herself helped to develop in the Ashram and earns a profit of over 2 thousand per month. 6 Shindade (a drop out, SSC failed) has a workshop, where he Rural Development Through Education System 169