Manjusha Gram School

With the COVID-19 pandemic threatening to increase the poverty headcount globally, we heed the United Nations Environment Programme’s call to "Building Back Better with Natural Resources.” 

We envision founding an alternative school along the flood-prone Kosi river in the Bhagalpur district of Bihar, an Indian state where a disproportionate share of the country's poor live. Our objective is to build the school sustainably, using the principles of vernacular architecture. 

Manjusha is an ancient scroll painting, endemic to Bhagalpur, while 'gram' is the Hindi word for village. By founding the school, we hope to pioneer a local movement to revive the vernacular art and architecture. 

The school proposes to create a scalable model for generating green jobs and improving rural livelihood by focusing on research and training in areas related to vernacular architecture, community-supported agriculture, solid waste management and local art and craft. 

A stringent lockdown following the COVID-19 outbreak in late March triggered an unprecedented exodus of labourers from cities across India. Hundreds of thousands homebound labourers undertook long, desperate and sometimes fatal journeys. Our project is based in rural Bihar where a majority of the households are exposed to migration. 

With many of the labourers returning to their home state, the stress on local resources is growing. According to the World Bank Report, 2016, fluctuations in agricultural output remain a critical constraint as Bihar struggles in its efforts to alleviate poverty. Smallholder agriculture remains the dominant economic activity in the state, even as climate change threatens to make agriculture more unsustainable. 

The coronavirus pandemic has weakened the local government’s fight against poverty, hunger and malnutrition. It’s worth noting that a Bihar-like crisis is manifesting in other parts of the world. “Of the 734 million extreme poor prior to the COVID-19 crisis, 80 percent live in rural areas. Of these, 76 percent work in agriculture,” the Food and Agriculture Organisation says in its recent policy brief.  

We plan to address the problem by starting Manjusha Gram, an alternate school that will make agriculture more sustainable and help generate green jobs in the non-farm sector. Training, research and community outreach will be the major areas the school will work on initially. 

Through community-supported agriculture (CSA) and development of integrated farming systems, we propose to help local marginal farmers achieve livelihood security. The school will train and encourage entrepreneurship by helping them form self-help groups (SHGs), a collective of 10-20 people with a shared interest. Likewise, we will also help rural craftspeople and Manjusha artists develop their craft and learn to do business through SHGs. 

Our solution matrix also involves addressing critical supply chain issues. With the help of Bihar Agricultural University, Bhagalpur, one of our partner institutions, we’re looking to provide low-cost cold storage solutions to farmers. 

The other non-farm sector initiatives will include promoting research and training in Manjusha art, vernacular architecture and solid waste management. Our big-ticket goal is to coalesce partner SHGs into a producer organisation of at least a thousands individuals in the next three years. 

We also envision developing regional specialisation, building food processing capabilities and establishing efficient short supply chains.

Our solution serves marginal farmers, landless labourers and backward castes engaged in activities like handicraft, folk art, carpentry, masonry, fisheries, etc. We particularly plan to serve those below 30 years of age, comprising nearly 65% of the state’s population. 

Service sector and the construction industry, the two major drivers of the local economy, have hurt badly in the COVID era, leaving many to depend on government aid. The unemployment rate in Bihar has always been one of the highest in the country. 

The Manjusha Gram team has spent intense time engaging with the community we’re looking to serve. We have invited members of the community to participate in construction of the school buildings—using locally-available natural building materials like bamboo, straw bales, hemp/jute crate. Rapid urbanisation in the last two decades has jeopardised the local vernacular built environment. 

Our in-house architect, Ishan Akhtar, has a personal mission to help locals learn to build low-cost, flood resilient homes for themselves. All our efforts are oriented towards creating a strong community bond and creating ecological and livelihood resilience. We recognised  the need for creating green jobs in the non-farm sector only after conducting focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with relevant stakeholders.

Manjusha Gram School addresses the above selected dimension by serving as an innovation centre for rural enterprise, providing local self-help groups in the farm and non-farm sector access to capital, networks, and technology. Our solution matrix also involves providing employable skills to youth through training and workshops. We plan to help them leverage technology to tap into new business possibilities. For example, running the proposed CSA programme—which allows consumers to schedule their farm visits and pick from a range of agricultural produce that they want to grow, just by using an app—will require the rural youth to develop relevant skills.

Manjusha Gram School has been greatly inspired by The Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL), founded in 1988. SECMOL is an alternative school with a vision to bring education reform and promote eco-friendly living. Founder Sonam Wangchuk is widely known for his ice stupa project, a remarkable initiative aimed at solving water shortage in the trans-Himalayan mountain desert of Ladakh. Mr Wangchuk has even inspired the popular Bollywood film, 3 Idiots. 

Our project is a spontaneous response to the global pandemic that has upended our lives. The COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown have led to massive job losses in the informal sector, which constitutes about 81 to 88 per cent of the Indian economy. Bihar with the highest share of internal migrants in India faces a critical challenge. COVID-19 has stemmed the flow of remittances. We’re seeing extreme deprivation in the southeastern district of Bhagalpur. With the COVID cases rising sharply, many of those who are now hunkered down in their villages are reluctant to return to their previous jobs in big cities.  

Our project aims at providing practical solutions to creating green jobs in the region. The construction of the vernacular-themed school, a highly labour intensive exercise, will itself provide the much needed cash infusion to households who are currently dependent on government aid. Once operational, the rural entrepreneurship school by next year envisions creating green jobs by making strategic interventions, particularly in the non-farm sector. 

We plan to use a variety of technologies, ranging from bioengineering and mobile applications to ancestral technology and practices. For the construction of modest vernacular structures for the school, we are exploring possibilities of using bamboo, rammed earth, straw bales, hemp/jute crate, recycled plastic, naturally harvested wood, ikra reed, earthcrete, construction waste, etc. 

Vernacular is not archaic, but a timeless way of building. It involves “continuous adaptation as a response to social and environmental constraints”, according to the International Council on Monuments and Sites, a global non-governmental organisation only of its kind. 

For developing integrated farms, we are planning to use biofloc technology to develop small and closed aquaculture systems. Our project site is surrounded by fishing villages which largely relies on capture fishing in the Kosi river, prone to frequent floods. Being a closed system, biofloc technology minimises the risks from flooding and increases land and water use. Low-cost, on-farm storage technologies like the new zero energy cool chamber are also part of our plan to develop integrated farming systems. The zero energy chambers are being promoted locally by our partner institution, Bihar Agricultural University. 

We propose to use video conferencing platforms to organise workshops and carry out outreach activities. To further our goal of CSA, we’re in the process of collaborating with private schools in the district capital. Using our CSA app, the schoolchildren and their parents will be able to connect with our partner farmers.

Al Jazeera’s six-part documentary series, Rebel Architecture, profiles Pakistani woman architect Yasmeen Lari who has successfully provided disaster relief shelters in the world. Lari used vernacular techniques to rebuild villages in flood affected Sindh region in Pakistan. With the use of local materials such as lime and bamboo, she demonstrated how architecture can play in a role in humanitarian aid. Vernacular designs leave a tiny carbon footprint, an idea which is key to “building back green.” One of our founding members has extensive experience of building vernacular structures.

Biofloc technology is a well established method of building closed aquaculture systems. “The technology has recently gained attention as a sustainable method to control water quality, with the added value of producing proteinaceous feed in situ,” Roselien Carb, Tom Defoirdt, Peter Bossier and Willy Verstraete say in their research paper, titled “Biofloc technology in aquaculture: Beneficial effects and future challenges.”

Zero Energy Cool Chamber is a proven technology. “This is an on-farm storage chamber, for fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers to extend their marketability. Storage of fresh horticultural produce after harvest is one of the most pressing problems of a tropical country like India,” the Technology Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, says.

Mobile phone internet penetration in India allows us to pursue app-based solutions. CSAs for long have been using apps to reach out to their consumers. 

Sustainability is at the core of our solution matrix. In the COVID-induced economic slowdown, we believe it’s important to prioritise a green recovery. Growth in the non-farm sector will be crucial to rural development strategy in India, as over 60% of the rural workforce is employed in agriculture-based livelihoods even though the share of agricultural output is barely 17%. 

Our project is based in one of the poorest regions in India and indeed the world. Marginal farming in Bihar is a major source of household income. Manjusha Gram, the alternative school with a vision to promote rural enterprise, seeks to build human capital for majorly promoting off-farm activities which has the potential of alleviating poverty and bringing about a structural transformation in the local economy. 

Our theory of change is inspired by Jan Douwe van der Ploeg’s model of rural development, which focuses on three dimensions: deepening (organic farming, storage, processing, regional product specialisation),  broadening (fair, efficient and sustainable use of resources, interface between people and biodiversity at landscape level, such as agro-tourism, energy production).

We believe a positive structural change can be induced by fostering entrepreneurship among the marginalised population. Manjusha Gram envisions enabling self-help groups to find ways to improve their livelihood. One of our initial goals is to help the groups of local producers of fruits and vegetables gain access to low-cost cold storage solutions and marketing channels. The nearby villages have masterful practitioners of Manjusha art, the ancient scroll painting based on the folklore of Bihula-Bishari. We have developed strategic linkages to help these artists market their products. Majusha is a local heritage of the region where we plan to operate. 

Reclaiming the vernacular art and architecture can help us attract eco-tourism in future. The building of the school will be a great community building exercise. In building the vernacular-themed school, we will involve farm labourers, carpenters, weavers and Manjusha artists. From the very start, we’ll engage with the local community to explore ways to manage the farm and non-farm waste. Vermicomposting and recycling plastic waste is something we can begin with.

We have identified five villages in Naugachhia block of Bhagalpur district, the site of the proposed Manjusha Gram School. These villages have approximately 7,000 households. We’re confident of delivering change in the region. Our team has devoted intense time engaging with the local community through focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. 

Since we’re at the prototype stage, we have so far only been able to understand the needs of the community we’re looking to work with. We’re hoping to provide launchpads to 10 new SHGs (or cooperatives) in the next one years. One SHG typically comprises 10-20 members. Besides this, we will be training at 20-25 youths to help us support in our various outreach initiatives like the community-supported agriculture programme. 

In the first year of operation, the project will focus on waste management that will involve setting up vermicompost pits in all the five villages. Our effort will be to involve as many families as possible. Through our various initiatives, we plan to reach out to nearly a third of all households in the next three years. After which, we’ll consider opening two or three small branches in nearby village clusters.

Being a rural entrepreneurship school, Manjusha Gram will be relentless in promoting rural enterprise. Setting up SHGs is part of our initial plan. But our big vision is to give the community a strong regional brand and be a promoter of a producer organisation. In the new policy environment, marginal farmers engaged in the agriculture sector stand to benefit only if they form cooperatives or producer organisations.

Around three-fourth of the democratically elected Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies—village-level bodies entrusted with the responsibility of increasing farm income in Bihar—lack physical infrastructure, the Government of India’s planning body in one of its reports says. With public spending drying up, the situation is less likely to change. 

In the next two-three years, we’ll be looking to establish short supply chains, which will include constructing agri warehouses, cold storages, retail outlets in nearby towns, developing on-site food processing capabilities, business-to-business sales, online marketing, etc. In order to achieve this objective, the alternative school will play a critical role. It will help SHGs build infrastructure capabilities. 

In the five villages that we have identified, farmers grow high-value produce—viz. lychee, mango, banana, katarni rice, pulses, bamboo and fishes—and women generally are masterful Manjusha artists. Once our initiative gains popularity among locals, we will coalesce SHGs to form a producer organisation. To grow the membership base, we might have to launch an outreach campaign in future. Once the COVID-19 contagion is contained, we see agro-tourism as another great way to help locals achieve livelihood security. 

Engaging with the rural community in the COVID-19 era is hugely challenging. Societies have become fractious, caste-based discriminations and communal hatred have only grown in the recent months. Pressure on the scarce land resources is growing. Bringing people together for a shared cause is not an easy task in times like these. Physical distancing norms makes community engagement less effective. We require funding for building the school, meeting our operation expenses and providing small grants to SHGs. The project is currently running from private contributions from the members. 

We’re working on building volunteer and influencer networks in the target villages. These networks will make community engagement much more effective. Once we begin construction of the school, WhatsApp groups, pamphlets, community networks and local media coverage will become effective ways of outreach. If we become successful in attracting community participation at the time of construction, it will become a journey well begun. 

The great thing about vernacular architecture is that it uses local building material and craftsmanship. Manjusha painting will adorn school facades. We will invite the community members to create art under the supervision of experts. Our goal is to generate enough funds so that we’re able to pay adequate wages to all those who come forward to work on the site, be it the construction workers or painters. 

Manjusha art, which is our local heritage, is based on the popular folklore of Bihula-Bishari, the local deities. The folklore is about a woman’s resilience in the face of misfortune. Motifs used in the art capture the local flora and fauna, evoking a surreal pathos. We believe that culture and art can galvanise economic development even in a fractious society. 

The community-supported agriculture programme will help raise money in advance. It will help farmer SHGs to develop integrated farms and set up on-site low-cost cold storage units. We’re also actively looking for grants to support our initiative.

We have two full-time and three part-time staff. Other workers include members of partner organisations, who help us organise field visits in our targeted geography, share strategic inputs and research insights. Lately, we have spent time building influencer and volunteer networks in the villages we’re looking to serve. 

All the founding members of Manjusha Gram are natives of Bhagalpur. We attended the same secondary school in the district town. Members of the team have for long harboured a vision to work in the region to address challenges related to rural livelihood, housing and education. Most of us for long parts of our lives, studied and worked in other parts of the country. 

The team’s moment of reckoning came after India witnessed the unprecedented exodus of internal migrants from its cities following the announcement of a stringent lockdown in late March. The images and stories of helpless, homebound labourers trudging along the highway changed something within us. Our field visits reveal horrors of an impending crisis, many have already slipped or are on the verge of slipping into the throes of poverty as the Indian economy tries to slowly reopen amid the coronavirus crisis. 

We have a range of skill sets within the team that will allow us to implement the vision of our alternative school. Our families have been supportive. We see a lot of help coming our way once we start operations. All these puts us in a unique position to deliver on something we strongly feel for.

We have built strategic partnerships with local institutions and businesses in the last months. Following the incorporation of our initiative, Manjusha Gram, we plan to sign MOUs/agreements in which shared objectives and strategies will be specified, roles and responsibilities of each the individual actors too will be clearly stated. 

Our current partners include institutions like Bihar Agriculture University, Peepal-The Resilience Lab and Manjusha Art Research Foundation. In our network, we also have some local retailers, handloom traders and private schools. Liquid Architects (OPC) Pvt. Ltd., an architectural firm owned by one of our founding members, is playing a vital role in the execution of the project.

Bihar Agriculture University, Bhagalpur, is one of the oldest agriculture universities in the country. In collaboration with the university, we are focusing on ways to develop integrated farms, run the CSA programme and find the right technological solutions to help new and old self-help groups in the off-farm sector. In the coming months and years, we will also seek the university’s assistance in conducting workshops and training programmes in our proposed Manjusha Gram School. 

Peepal-The Resilience Lab will help us in areas related to solid waste management, while the Manjusha Art Research Foundation will play a role in training the local Manjusha artists. Local handloom traders have agreed to help us in product dovelopment. We’re looking to embroidery Manjusha art on local handloom products by engaging women in our target villages.

Since Manjusha Gram is an alternative school aimed at promoting inclusive rural entrepreneurship, the value proposition we offer ranges from skilling rural youth in farm and off-farm activities, creating livelihood and ecological resilience to promoting high quality organic, handicraft and handloom products with a strong territorial brand. We also envision to enrich and expand the vernacular built environment in the region of our operation which can help local businesses to tap opportunities in agro-tourism.  

Our community-supported agriculture (CSA) programme will provide schoolchildren, elderly and working professionals in the district town gain control over what they eat and how they grow their food. We will act as an interface between the consumers and farmer self-help groups that we engage with through this programme. Outreach initiatives of Manjusha Gram will follow channels like word of mouth, social networks, website, mobile application, media partners, etc. 

The revenue sources will include government/philanthropic grants, crowdfunding, commissions earned through CSA programmes, curated tours for schoolgoing children and local tourists, workshops, etc. Our efforts will be oriented towards reducing unsustainability. The key activities of Manjusha Gram will include creating opportunities for green jobs in rural areas, finding solutions to managing farm and non-farm wastes, and promoting vernacular art and architecture.

Manjusha Gram can leverage its social, cultural and human capital to galvanise change in the region. We are looking to partner with educational institutions, government bodies, non-profits, retail and agri businesses. Our operational expenses mainly include staff costs, financial aids to SHGs, maintenance, transportation and utilities. 

As mentioned above, in the initial years of our operation, we plan to rely on a variety of revenue sources. To begin construction of the school building, we’re seeking philanthropic grants. Since we'll be using vernacular building materials, our expenses on construction will be quite modest. 

Commissions earned through the CSA programme that we propose to facilitate should take care of our small operational expenses like maintenance, transportation and utilities.

We plan to majorly raise funds by conducting paid workshops for schoolgoing children. We will have planned activities like junkyard art, Manjusha painting, bamboo carpentry, etc. For organising these workshops, we're looking to partner with schools in the district capital. 

We also have plans to open a souvenir shop in the campus premises to sell local handicrafts and handloom products.  

The revenue sources will also include government grants, crowdfunding, curated tours for schoolgoing children and local tourists, etc. We're hoping to expand the vernacular built environment and engage in natural and landscape management to make the place more conducive for agro-tourism.

The MIT Solve provides a global platform that projects like Manjusha Gram need. We're starting out our operations in southeastern Bihar, which is one of the poorest regions in India. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed vulnerabilities far beyond we could imagine. Public social spending is drying up even as the spread of contagion is threatening to overwhelm the healthcare system and imperil the rural economy. We work in villages where people are hunkered down, staring at a bleak future.

With the help of Solve and MIT networks, we're interested to learn ways to improve our solution. By applying to Solve, we hope to join the community of peers, funders, and experts at the nine-month program. The program can help us achieve scale and apply our solution to other parts of South Asia where a similar problems exist. 

Since last year southeastern Bihar has seen a devastating flood, repeated crop failures due to growing climate stress and the debilitating effect of COVID-19 on livelihood security. Similar challenges exist in much of South Asia where millions risk landing in throes of poverty. Our solution aligns with the United Nations' vision of "building back better" to pave way for a green economy recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. We hope to serve our community and the societies at large better with expert help from the Solve and MIT networks. 

Our solution matrix is based on the realities of the region we're working in. In order to gain scale and improve our business model, we're happy to invite help from experts. Funding remains a critical challenge as members of Manjusha Gram School project are from the middle or low income families and sources of raising funds in the country of our origin are limited.

We see a scope of improving our revenue model in order to make our project more financially sustainable. Project mentorship or advice from experts will be crucial, particularly in the early stage of growth. We also need to set up a system for periodic monitoring and evaluation for ensuring better outcomes and course corrections, whenever required.

We see a scope of going big on developing low-cost, sustainable housing solutions for the disaster-prone regions. In in the community that we're working with, we've seen floods force people to blow up their minor savings and land up in a debt trap. Works of architects like Yasmeen Lari and Nader Khalili inspire us to push our boundaries. The California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture, which is doing incredible work across the world and honouring the legacy of its late founder Nader Khalili, is one of the several organisations that we want to partner with. Microcredit is another area where we can learn a great deal. Here, we think, experience of organisations like Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab can be very helpful. The organisation has a vast experience of working in the geography we're targeting. 

We see our project, Manjusha Gram, as a great fit for the GM Prize on Good Jobs and Inclusive Entrepreneurship since our focus is to promote rural development and sustainability through upskilling and livelihood training. We're looking to create green jobs in the non-farm sector by making working-age adults ready for the changing marketplace. A green economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis is vital to achieving the goal of building back better.

As an alternative school aimed at promoting inclusive rural entrepreneurship, the value proposition we offer ranges from skilling rural youth to promoting high quality organic, handicraft and handloom products with a strong territorial brand. Within the first year of our operation itself, we see tremendous opportunities of creating good jobs by focusing on areas like solid waste management and community-supported agriculture. 

We also envision to enrich and expand the vernacular built environment in the region of our operation which can help local businesses to tap opportunities in agro-tourism. It will be an honour to be considered for the prize.