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Journalism of Courage
EVERY day when the sun set at Bhairavnath Vasti behind the Sahyadri mountains nearly 150 km from Pune, the huts would be shrouded in darkness, just like five crore rural households in India that go without electricity. But that was two months ago.
Bhairavnath Vasti no longer settles in darkness after sunset ever since Mumbai-based Grameen Surya Bijlee Foundation GSBF installed digital solar lamps in nearly 50 huts of the area, bringing light to the lives to the villagers8212;free of charge.
THE initiative to install the lighting systems was born out of another project. Jasjeet Singh Chaddha, an IIT Kharagpur alumni, was helping set up a charitable eye hospital in Narayangaon, about 87 km from Pune, when it struck him as strange that even after getting their eye sight restored, the patients retuned home to their dark homes. It inspired Chaddha to design a low cost and energy efficient lighting system. 8216;8216;It was an effort to bring back dignity to their lives. They have been living with darkness all their lives and that had to change,8217;8217; Chaddha says.
Most of these villagers have an average weekly income of Rs 200, dependent mostly on daily wage work at Narayangaon. With an average of five to six members per household, none of them could have ever afforded an electricity connection. In fact, the last electrified house is yawns away from these villages. For these villagers, electric light has always meant the twinkling lamps in a village across the mountain ridge.
AN entrepreneur, Chaddha blended his professional life with his dream, taking more than a year to design the system. Focusing on a cost effective system, he decided to use LEDs which are energy efficient. Starting with 21 LEDs in the first lamp, the system now has two lamps with 33 LEDs, which is 39 percent more luminous than the previous ones.
8216;8216;One lamp is for the kitchen while the other one can be used by the children to study,8217;8217; says Chaddha. In the solar panel, amorphous silicon is used so that the battery gets charged even under hazy conditions.
The system is still undergoing upgradation, as one small lamp will be included to the existing system to cater to the demands of the users who need a night lamp to ward off wild animals.
P.S. Bami, former chairman of National Thermal Power Corporation NTPC, who has seen the product, says the system has great potential of being used at places where there is no grid connection. 8216;8216;However, someone has to fund this endeavour,8217;8217; he says. 8216;8216;Moreover they will also have to work on the costing.8217;8217;
GSBF plans to bring down the price down to at least Rs 1,500. 8216;8216;We will need help from the government in the form of exemption of excise duties on the LEDs as well as the silicon panels. This way, in one shot, the product price will come down by Rs 500,8217;8217; says Chaddha.
Some experts feel the product is cost effective. Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala of IIT, Chennai, who is helping incubate companies in the field of rural technology, is one of them. According to him, a large section of the people who do not have electricity can afford the low priced product. 8216;8216;The LED based lamps are great energy saver and should be used, irrespective of having electric power by solar or other means,8217;8217; he says.
Kama Krishnamoorthy, Chaddha8217;s batchmate, a former Wall Street business analyst and a key partner in the project believes that 80 per cent of the people without electricity will be able to afford the product while the rest 20 per cent will be taken care of by GSBF. 8216;8216;It is a non-profit venture since the whole idea is to help the rural poor who cannot afford conventional lighting or have access to one8217;8217; he adds. Moreover, GSBF has discovered that the urban consumers are also interested in buying the product.
