About SIDH
A bit about Sidh, "Since 1989, the journey at SIDH has been about negotiating spaces through education for a more meaningful exploration and dialogue, not only in social & political spheres but within individual mindsets. Ideally shiksha, or education, is about understanding the relationship of the self with the body, with the family, with society, with nature and all that exists. It is about eliciting a samajh, or understanding, and to live our lives accordingly.
However, during the course of our work at SIDH, we could clearly see that present day education was having a negative effect on most children. They began mindlessly rejecting their own - be it their traditions, beliefs, lifestyle - while aspiring for lifestyles and other objects that were associated with being modern. By alienating the child from his/her land, family, community, culture, belief systems etc education was creating low self-esteem and lack of confidence in the educated child. Parents were equally unhappy with the impact of such education upon their children.
The scope of education, therefore, should shift from just copying some curriculum and producing 'literates' to a more fundamental understanding of the human being with respect to his immediate environment, from which he/she can draw comfort & confidence. However, this is a challenging task, because contemporary education has trapped all of us in a set of questionable assumptions, leading many times to frustration & unhappiness.
At SIDH, we feel it is important to challenge today's dominant notions of who is 'civilized', who is 'backward', or what is 'scientific' and what is 'modern'. We hope to enhance the low self-esteem and self-confidence through our experiments at Bodhigram, a space to explore and identify 'relevant' education, which includes:
If you like to know more about SIDH write to Pawan Gupta sidhsri@sancharnet.in or www.sidh.org or call 91 0135 2630338, 2621304 ie Mussoorie, Uttaranchal, India.