A mother of a Bikalpa Gyan Kendra (BKG) student is presented with a tin box (Bikalpa Baksa) to mark her daughter's graduation. The boxes contain stationery items and a few primers on practical know-how. But more important, the box is BKG's way of giving the girls a space they can call their own. In their one-roomed homes in the village, where everthing – from clothes to combs – must be shared among many, the girls' privacy is at a premium. Thus owning their own box makes it both a precious possession and a reminder to the girls that they are acknowledged as individuals.

Gole was given the box (or Bikalpa Baksa) when she completed a unique 18-month program at the Katmandu branch of Bikalpa Gyan Kendra ("Alternative Learning Center"). The program allows Tamang girls like Gole to simultaneously earn money and pursue personal growth through a program of education that teaches spiritual development, community values, and practical skills to boost their ability to earn money. Symbolically, Gole's small tin box is the one piece of luggage she must carry to travel to a future where she controls her own destiny.

Poverty Amongst Splendor

The landlocked Eastern Himalayan kingdom of Nepal is known to the world for its breathtaking peaks, including Mount Everest, and it stunning scenic beauty. But this natural splendor also is home to some of the world's poorest people. More than half the population lives below the poverty line according to United Nations' estimates.

Nepal's population has increased dramatically during the past three decades, ballooning from 9 to 20 million people. This adds growing pressure on Nepal's creaking infrastructure and diminishing natural resources. Eighty per cent of Nepal's people live in rural areas and most have little access to sanitation facilities or potable water.

When Nepalis' survival is in doubt, they discard education as a luxury and children are pressed into labor. Girls suffer most acutely: the literacy rate for girls is 39 percent compared to 61 percent for boys, and girls comprise 55 percent of the child labor force. For Nepal's indigenous ethnic minorities like the Buddhist Tamangs the struggle for survival is compounded by their marginalized status.

Children in Nepal in the year 2002 Out of 100 Children: 50 (50.05) are girls 50 (49.95) are boys 86 live in villages 14 live in cities 90 are immunised 48 are malnourished 40 belong to extremely poor families 80 are admitted to school, but only 51 complete the primary level 86 boys and 74.6 girls are enrolled in primary level school In Nepal: 41% of the total population are children below 16 years old 27,000 children die of diarrhea every year There is only one children's hospital There is one child specialist per 104,066 children Out of 2.5 million disabled people, 5% are children 52% of the population do not have toilets There are 23,885 primary schools 2.6 million children are engaged in different sectors of child labor Girls aged 10-14 work twice as much as boys in the same age group At least 40,000 children are bonded laborers 5,000 children are working and living on the streets 450 pregnant mothers out of 100,000 die in childbirth every year 12,000 women and children are trafficked to India each year 34% of marriages involve children below 15 years old About 100 children are in adult jails Sources: CWIN/CBS/UNICEF/Ministry of Education/ILO-IPEC/Family Planning Project-UNFPA/Nepal Medical Association/National Federation of Disabled Association/NEPAS Page updated on 20 May, 2002

Historically, the Tamangs have lived in the mountainous areas along the Tibet border. Their rich cultural tradition includes a language quite distinct from Nepali, the language of the majority. Over time, the Nepali majority has pushed the Tamang – who constitute about four percent of Nepal's population – to the margins of society.

Tamang men work as subsistence farmers or laborers. Alcoholism is chronic and most of the pittance they earn is spent on country liquor.

Not surprisingly, women suffer the harshest fate in the Tamang's rigidly patriarchal society. Girls learn at a young age that their value lies in the income they can generate for their families, whether by domestic labor or the sex trade. The number of Tamang girls being sold into prostitution in Nepal and India is rising.

Girls in Nepal Population: Girls in Nepal are 51% of the total child population Literacy Rate: Literacy rate of girls is 39% compared to 61% for boys Child Marriage: 34% of all marriages in Nepal involve girls below age 16. 7% of child marriages involve children below age 10. Child Labor: Most household chores and child rearing activities are the responsibility of girls. Girls between ages 10 and 14 work twice as much as boys in the same age group. Girl Trafficking: Girls are trafficked for different purposes, including domestic work, forced beggary, carpet weaving and the sex trade. About 20% of females involved in trafficking for the sex trade (40,000 girls) are below age 16. Child Malnutrition: Child malnutrition in Nepal is 56.2%, and girls are more vulnerable than boys Rape and Sex Abuse: Almost 60% of survivors of child sex abuse and rape are girls below age 18. Most of them are abused either at home or at the work place. Gender Discrimination: Discrimination of girls is rampant in every sector of society including education, economy, health care and labor Conservative Tradition: Women and girls are regarded as "untouchable" during their menstrual period. In some parts of far western Nepal, they are not even allowed to stay inside the home. They are forced to stay outside, usually in the cattle house. Despite legal prohibition, sexual exploitation of girls in the form of traditional and religious customs such as deuki still exist in Nepal. Sources: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) / UNICEF / Ministry of Education / Ministry of Health

Providing Girls with Real-Life Choices

Stella Tamang, founder of Bikalpa Gyan Kendra (BGK), is convinced that the only way to combat child labor in Nepal is by creating real life-choices for the workers – something that both child labor laws and the conventional formal school system fail to do. She founded BGK to both provide an education and contribute to students' livelihood.

Photo by Ratan Man Lama "Aasu"

Stella Tamang in her office at BGK in Kathmandu

BGK's curriculum combines book learning with practical skill trainings. The result: at the end of the program BKG graduates can choose to use either their newly-acquired income-generating skills, or enter the formal school system and qualify for a professional service. In either case, the students are transformed dramatically from passive victims to empowered women who have gained a range of opportunities they formerly could not have imagined.

Tamang's work as a social entrepreneur is a direct response to the conditions of her own life. Although her family had meager financial resources, she was fortunate because her parents appreciated the liberating potential of education.

Even so, the only way Tamang could continue her schooling was to work late into the night, knitting garments for sale. At a young age, this petite woman learned the value of earn-while-you-learn, a practice that later became a core principle of the educational model she pioneered.

Tamang eventually qualified to be teacher, but she soon grew restless with her comfortable job in a mainstream school. The dry, old-fashioned pedagogy that was the standard for teachers conflicted sharply with what she knew instinctively: children should enjoy learning.

She also was increasingly uncomfortable with the fact that she was spending her energy and time teaching "children from well-off families," yet there was no decent school for the poor children in her own low-income locality. Tamang decided the only way to realize her two goals – providing low-cost quality education to poor children and making learning fun for the kids – was to start her own institution.

Humble Beginnings

In 1971, Tamang founded Bhrikuti School, named after the Tamang princess who, legend has it, married the Tibetan king and brought Buddhism to Tibet. The school started with just five students, but within weeks the enrollment grew to 15.

The start-up capital for Bhrikuti was just 3,000 rupees (about US$39), the amount of money Tamang had managed to save over eight months. Leveraging her personal contacts, Tamang found a small space for the school with a subsidized rent.

To cut costs, teachers made teaching aids from recycled household items and natural materials like clay, twigs and berries. "We were just a handful of teachers, barely drawing any salary and using simple and low-cost tools," Tamang said. "But I think we were giving our children a child-centered education that they couldn't have received even in the most expensive schools in the city, simply because it didn't exist."

Photo by Ratan Man Lama "Aasu"

A typical Tamang home in the Rasuwa district with the cattle housed below the structure

These teaching methods and aids emerged by instinct rather than from any formal training, according to Tamang. In 1975, after Bhrikuti was well-established and on its way to becoming a full-scale secondary school, she won a scholarship that paid her way to Israel for an eight-month diploma course on kindergarten education. This gave her a chance to validate what she already "knew from the heart" – how to effectively teach children – and to gain an invaluable foundation of formal training in practice and theory.

Soon after returning from Israel, Tamang began promoting child-centered, activity-based teaching methods in Katmandu's schools by establishing the Teaching Services Centre, Nepal's first resource center for pre-primary teachers. The center opened in 1981 with support from Israel University. Here, teachers could meet, share ideas and experiences, develop creative teaching aids, and participate in training programs.

A Disturbing Discovery

The BGK program emerged from another effort to reach out to an underprivileged group: Tamang started an evening literacy program for child laborers in the carpet factories near Bhrikuti. Most of the child laborers were Tamang girls. Stella Tamang soon realized that what she was offering was inadequate, given the range and complexity of the issues these girls faced.

"As I interacted with them, I realized that although they were in the city, their hearts were in the villages with their family," Tamang said. "Economic pressures were the only reason for leaving their village.

Photo courtesy Stella Tamang

Hope is tempered with uncertainity on the faces of a group of BGK students just arrived from the villages. For many, this is the first time they've stepped out of their village.

"At the same time, my own identity as a Tamang woman had been pushing me toward learning about and researching my peoples, and what I found happening in my community was deeply disturbing. As the number of young people moving to the city swelled relentlessly, the family – the very core of the Tamang community – was disintegrating, and this was causing the fabric of Tamang society to be ripped apart.

"It was the Tamang girls who were perhaps the most impacted: pretty and vulnerable, they are in great demand by the sex industry. Currently, the highest percentage of Nepali women in the sex trade is Tamangs.

"I knew if I were to design a solution, it would have to accomplish the following: provide a safe environment, enable the girls to earn and learn simultaneously, and facilitate the girls' return to the villages by creating economic options for them within the village context."

Exchanging Servitude for Self-Determination

Tamang's simple literacy project evolved into BGK's holistic approach that allows Tamang girls to both earn and learn in a safe environment. They gain skills that they can use profitably when they return to their villages, creating benefits for themselves and for their community.

Since BGK was formally launched in 1996 in Katmandu, it has enrolled groups of 25 girls between the ages of 13 and 17 into an 18-month residential program. The first class consisted mostly of child laborers from carpet factories.

These child laborers exchanged servitude in the carpet factories, a high-risk occupation, for the safety of BGK's residential program. They gave up higher wages in return for the small income they could earn while participating in BGK's skill-training program. This sacrifice was compensated by greater self-esteem, expanding career options and a chance to return to productive lives in their own villages.

"If I hadn't come to this program, I would still be working as servant – learning only about sweeping and cleaning the cowshed, and doing that for the rest of my life," said Dawa Gali, a BGK graduate who is pursuing plans to specialize in early childhood development (ECD).

Before she launched BGK, Tamang researched inventoried rural resources and workers' skills and occupational patterns. She met with parents, village authorities and local Tamang council representatives, using all her powers of persuasion and leveraging her personal connections to get crucial buy-in.

Parents were the biggest hurdles because shifting their daughters to BGK would cause a substantial drop in family income. But Tamang used all her negotiating skills – appealing to both their emotions and to intellect – to convince parents that the short-term material sacrifices would create a better future life for their daughter, themselves and their entire community.

Today, in addition to child laborers, BGK's classes include girls who have quit working or who have not yet left their villages. Without BGK, many would have been destined to do very soon or would have been consigned to hopeless drudgery in their village.

The Selection Process Local Tamang counsellors choose candidates for BGK who have the following qualifications: They are girls are between 13 and 17. They are working in some form of servitude, or about to do so. Girls that form a class usually come from the same district because there is a great deal of regional variation in language and cultural practices among the Tamangs. By avoiding language and cultural differences within a class, the girls form a close-knit community where they help each other build confidence, an experience that forms the core of the BGK program.

At first, Tamang actively participated in the process of selecting girls but over time she has established a strong working relationship with Tamang village council leaders who advise her and select the girls who are invited to enroll in BGK. Tamang maintains ties to the village communities, visiting them as often as she can.

BGK has two core goals that are inextricable and drive every aspect of the program: 1) enabling the girls to realize their potential and preparing them to return to productive, fulfilling lives in their village and 2) improving life in their communities.

"We need to encourage the girls to discover the strengths both within themselves and within their community – and build on those," Tamang said. "We should start with what we know, what we have and what we are."

Boosting Earning Power and Personal Power

Students in BGK's skill-training program first identify the skills they already possess, then pool their knowledge and learn from each other, as well as from specialists. Although these skills are derived from their lives in rural villages, BGK helps them see how they can be converted to lucrative enterprises that expand their options for earning a living.

The curriculum includes sustainable agriculture practices, market gardening, traditional handicrafts such as weaving, knitting and basket making, and how to run a small shop and day care center. The girls earn a small income from these activities.

Photo courtesy Stella Tamang

Students share gossip and skills during a weaving session

They sell handicrafts at annual sales, handicraft outlets run by local citizen groups, and to overseas export markets. They receive a percentage of profits from a small shop that they operate on BGK's grounds, and they get paid for working in BGK's daycare center.

Income-generating projects must: be based on resources available in community be based on expertise available in community be suited to the environment be small and manageable so that the girls can run it easily protect and promote indigeneous/traditional know, skills and technology

The girls also learn important lessons about conservation and recycling. They reuse all recyclable materials, and participate in games and competitions that encourage them to devise creative new ways of recycling. These are important lessons for residents of communities with severely limited resources.

The girls are taught Tamang, but they use Nepali script. This makes it easier for them to advance to the formal Nepali medium school system if they wish to continue and complete their studies.

BGK's curriculum also addresses the girls' spiritual growth. They learn to develop their potential and strength through daily prayer and Buddhist meditation techniques. Field trips and participation in peace and children's rights rallies give them positive exposure to the outside world and encourage them to feel they are an active part of the larger society. This is an important opportunity because many of the girls are living outside their remote rural villages for the first time.

Reaching out to Mothers, Communities

BGK also reaches out to the girls' mothers, who are invited to participate in the school's cultural programs and events. This provides opportunities to conduct informal consciousness-raising discussions about issues related to health, parenting, child development and education.

On graduation day, every mother receives a small tin Bikalpa Baksa, just like her daughter, to recognize her rights as an individual woman. These helps make the mothers partners in the BGK program and helps and ensure that the girls receive critical support during the challenging period when they launch their new lives.

Halfway through the 18-month program, BGK students take a one-month break to reconnect with their families and communities, and to make plans for the future. During the break they also identify resources they can tap in their village, such as opportunities to receive further education or establish micro-credit schemes, etc.

Frequently, BGK students have been taking the initiative to organize cultural programs and campaigns that have a strong social message – a promising harbinger of their future role as leaders and change agents within their communities. For example, after the first group of students returned to their villages in Dhading District, they launched an anti-alcohol campaign. Their multifaceted strategic plan included persuading women in the village not to brew liquor for their husbands, and convincing local authorities to impose a sustained ban on drinking.

Graduation day at BGK is a gala affair. "We make this a real celebration to underline the girls' achievements," Tamang said. Families are invited to attend and celebrate the girls' accomplishment.

The high point comes when each student's name is called and she goes up to receive her Bikalpa Baksa and an impressive certificate showing that she has completed BGK's program. The certificate is a source of pride and has practical value: if a citizen group needs to hire local staff for a field project, the certificate endorses the girls' competency for the job.

Pursuing Professions, Community Development

Many BGK graduates have gone to work for local development projects run by citizen groups while others have started village literacy programs. For example, four girls from BGK's first graduating class started a literacy program in their village.

BGK helped them get funding for the program. Each girl earns a salary of 500 rupees per month for teaching evening classes. During the day, they attend the local government school.

They could probably earn more as domestics or sex workers, but they prefer to work at jobs they have chosen, to earn the respect of the community, and to finish their schooling. What's lost in monetary terms is more than made up by gains in self-esteem and empowerment.

Some girls have gone to Katmandu to complete their studies professional training. "I want to be a nurse and work at the local primary health center in my district," said Pasang Tamang, a recent BGK graduate. She is currently completing her studies at a city school before starting her nursing training.

Dawa Gali loves children and wants to start a daycare center in her village, a plan with potential because this service is beginning to receive active encouragement from citizen groups. First, however, she must complete her school finals and get trained in early child development.

Both of these girls, plus several others who are completing their studies in Katmandu, live on the BGK campus. They get board and lodging in return for training newly arriving students in literacy and other skills. They also earn money by working in BGK's day care center, at the BGK shop, or on the grounds of the Bhrikuti school.

Photo by Ratan Man Lama "Aasu" BGK girls in Katmandu discovered that many infants and toddlers were sitting around during the day, bored and without care, while their mothers were working in the carpet factories in the area. For the girls, these children were reminders of the little siblings they had left behind at home. Their natural instincts drew them to spend time with the children, playing with them and taking care of them.       They decided they would like to start a program in which they provided supervised care for these children. They got enthusiastic support from Tamang and the mothers, who were happy that they would not have to worry about their children any more. They gladly agreed to pay a nominal 50 rupees per month for daily child care.       Through BGK, the girls receive training from experts in early child development and childcare so they can provide quality care. It's a win-win situation for all – the mothers are happy; their children receive supervised, stimulating care; the older children get some early education; and the girls get to do something they enjoy, earn money, and get training to do it better.

Tough Problems Remain

Despite this record of achievement, the BGK program is still struggling to establish itself. The problem is not inadequate funding. BGK receives finds from sources including the Partage and Haella foundations.

BGK's its philosophy of "high thinking, simple living" helps ensure that overhead expenses are low. Graduates of BGK provide training for incoming classes, and experts and resource persons also provide volunteer help.

The girls generate income for the program from a variety of activities. And BGK continues to share many of the resources of the adjacent Bhrikuti School in Katmandu, including space, administrative machinery and teachers.

Photo courtesy Stella Tamang

Tapping traditional resources: a Tamang woman in Dhading weaves a rug using skills and design ideas passed down through generations

The remaining obstacles are more fundamental, and are retarding progress. "We are trying to bring in very fundamental changes in the role of women," Tamang said. "Like any program whose main agenda is large-scale social change, we have to move slowly and sensitively, and win community support at every step."

Progress is further hampered by villagers' suspicions that BGK's promises may turn out to be like those made by sex trade brokers who commonly "buy" children from parents, promising wonderful jobs for them. As BGK establishes a track record, villagers are learning to trust the program, but it's still a fragile faith.

"When I returned to my village after the first nine months, my friends were astounded," Gole recalls. "Despite what my parents and community leaders told them about BGK, they didn't really believe in it. It was only after they met me and heard what I had been doing that they were convinced."

How does Tamang dispel this lack of trust? "By talking, talking and talking with all those who need to be convinced – parents, the authorities, everybody," she said.

Tamang encourages families to visit their girls so they can see first-hand that they are safe and happy. It helps that she has forged strong links with local Tamang councils who appreciate her work and act a liaison with village residents. They advise families to send their girls to BGK and help select the girls who go.

Photo courtesy Stella Tamang

A cultural event organized by BGK girls

Some expert observers who are familiar with BGK say it is crucial that the program be replicated by the government. BGK "has helped to create self confidence among the girls and has helped sensitize the parents and the community members in general," said Komal Badan Malla, a senior faculty member of Nepal's Tribhuvan University. "If the government could be convinced to run such program in the remote areas for undeserved and deprived girls, our nation could improve a lot. For this, we should acknowledge Mrs. Stella as the pioneer."

But the government is wary of endorsing BGK, Tamang said. "Because this is a program designed for a particular ethnic group, the government thinks it is engineering social divisiveness," she said. "This is an old mindset and I have to keep working on it." Part of her strategy is directly involving senior government officials as guests in BGK programs, such as inviting Nepal's Education Minister to be the chief guest on graduation day.

Tamang tirelessly lobbies to raise the public's awareness of BGK and to raise issues related to the Tamang people in national and international fora. She has successfully focused international attention on the plight of Tamang women, and educated the global community about the BGK model as South Asia coordinator of the Indigenous Knowledge Program.

BGK's Influence Spreads Despite Obstacles

Despite these obstacles, the BGK movement is spreading. Currently, there are two centers, one in Katmandu (serving Nepal's middle development region) and one in Sanischare Village in Nepal's eastern development region. Tamang's goal is to establish one center in each of the three remaining development regions.

The centers will then replicate themselves within their region. They will function autonomously although BGK Katmandu will continue to provide general guidance and leadership to ensure they are run in accordance with the BGK philosophy and precepts.

The BGK Way Build the spiritual self through meditation, prayer, and thought-sharing with peers Build the physical self through good health and hygene practices Learn to earn through: • Learning a traditional skill • Learning how to identify and utilize resource       bases • Training in the practical aspects of       management such as basic accounting • Optimizing use of existing resources through       creative recycling and reuse Learn lessons in your own language Learn community-building through: • Conflict resolution trainings • Leadership training • Learning to recognize all the positive qualities of       your community and ways to preserve and       nurture them

While pursuing this spread strategy, Tamang remains focused on consolidating and expanding the existing programs. Her dream of converting BGK Katmandu into Bikalpa Kola Namsa ("Bikalpa Girls Village"), a quasi-independent "village", is already taking shape.

The BGK Katmandu center has acquired its own land adjacent to Bhrikuti School. In this spacious setting, plans are being made to build separate learning centers. Girls will participate administering the center through a children's council. This will be an empowering experience that gives them crucial skills for leadership and community decision-making.

Tamang has often been criticized for restricting her program to her own ethnic community. There is no hesitation in her response: " In my situation, I am trying to help the Tamang children first because – from my own house, from myself and what I can do – this is our family and we have a bigger extended family. We need to help each other first and then extend our work."

Nevertheless, Tamang is confident that the BGK model can be extended to other ethnic groups. This belief is supported by Prof. Malla who says it can be extended to ethnic minorities and other disadvantaged groups including "the Tharu community in Tarai region; Chapang, Danwar, Kalwar communities in the hilly regions; and untouchable people like Sarkhi, Damai, Kami, Kushle, Podhe who are deprived and disadvantaged."

Photo courtesy Stella Tamang

Hira, a graduate of BGK's first class, teaches the second class

In the meantime, a steady stream of young Tamang women are taking seizing an opportunity to change their own lives and to become the changemakers of their communities, armed with their Bikalpa Baksas and certificates.

• volunteers for administrative functions and field work

• volunteers to help BGK launch a Web site by doing Web-design/content management

• volunteers to produce a video on BGK

In addition, BGK would like to receive information or share ideas with people who have worked with similar issues.

Stella Tamang
Bikalpa Gyan Kendra
Baudha Mahankal
Pipalbot, Kathmandu
Post Box 1366
Tel: 00-9771-480085
Fax: 00-9771-471179
Email: ps@tamang.wlink.com.np

• Creating Safe Space and New Opportunities for Women Workers, by Amala Reddy
• Factory-Based Daycare, a Studio presentation by Shehzad Noorani/Developing Images
• Forming a Working Children's Union in Southwestern India, Photos and Sound by Janet Jarman
• Freedom to Grow Without Gender Stereotypes, by Marjie Suanda
• Lighting the Spark of Factory-based Daycare in Bangladesh, by Amala Reddy
• Rescuing Children from Abusers, by Kris Herbst
• Salvaging Childhood in India, by Soma Wadhwa
• The School is the Community: Building Respect Between Generations, by James Wilson
• Schools With No Homework in Bangladesh, by Amala Reddy
• Towards Real 'Safe Custody' in Bangladesh, by Amala Reddy
• Youth Venture: Self-Reliance, Self-Taught (USA), by Lee Healey

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