The Hindu Business Line : Village women, now engineers

CHANDRAMMA, a daily wage earner from Rajendranagar, eking out a livelihood by crushing stone, is now a qualified technician who can handle a solar power unit.

She, along with three others Yellamma, Zaheeda and Kalavathi, all stone crushers from Hyderabad, have undergone training at the Social Work Research Centre (SWRC), Barefoot College, Tilonia in Rajasthan. Now, they are fully capable of managing solar energy equipment.

They have also converted the training into practice, by helping set up a 5-kVA solar energy plant at the Rural Technology Park (RTP), at the National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD), here.

These women have the skill sets to produce printed circuit boards and solar lanterns as well. The NIRD feels they will be resource persons for the development activity to be undertaken at the RTP in the area of solar power.

The solar energy facility at NIRD specifically addresses the needs of people in hilly regions and remote villages, particularly in tribal areas. The solar generation plant and workshop have been set up in collaboration with the SWRC.

NIRD's Director-General Lalit Mathur said the initiative is to train village women into becoming enterprising `solar power engineers.' The institute is also willing to help women set up and maintain small plants in their villages. He sought the cooperation of the State Government and various non-government organisations.

The State Commissioner (Tribal Development), Manmohan Singh, said two villages in Paderu, Visakhapatnam, would be identified for solar electrification with the NIRD's solar energy generation plant.

Several experts and officials felt that absence of maintenance facilities was the main reason for solar energy not becoming popular.

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