Rukmani Devi Katara, Maya Roat, Babli Devi have a lot in common; they live in the remote villages of Rajasthan’s Dungarpur district, share a tribal heritage, and have lived in abject poverty. However, their deprivation or culture are no longer the only factors binding them; instead it’s the pride of being entrepreneurs, thanks to the Solar Urja Lamps (SoULs) project, the brainchild of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. The project aimed to take clean energy light to boost children’s education in the area — only 49.8 per cent of the households in Dungarpur are electrified — but, in the process, it has also empowered tribal women, who now make a living assembling and retailing portable solar lamps.

Rukmani, 30, a resident of Mandava, couldn’t study beyond Std VIII as her parents believed that contributing to the family income was more important. She, however, has planned a very different future for her four children. She believes that the solar lamp assembly work will help her realise those plans. “I have been able to make good money the last couple of months. I want to ensure that my children will complete their education and get the kind of jobs that I couldn’t even dream of. My elder son is doing an engineering diploma, the other three are in school.”

IIT-Bombay launched Solar Saheli as part of its SoUL project in 281 villages scattered across Dungarpur, Dovara and Jhonthri blocks. The Rajasthan State Rural Livelihood Mission stepped in to organise the women into four clusters of 40 self-help groups each. In Dungarpur, trainers from IIT familiarised the women with instruments such as the millimetre and solar panels, and taught them to put together the solar lamps.

Chetan Singh Solanki, professor of solar energy at IIT-Bombay, says the project was initiated to provide energy-efficient lighting to school-going children in areas where kerosene lamps are the only source of illumination. The Dungarpur project is unique as it empowers children as well as their households.

“This simple intervention has made a lot of difference to the villagers’ lives. They say they are no longer afraid of stepping out after hours, especially during the rains when snakes and scorpions abound in the countryside,” says Solanki. The lamp emits 150 lux light and has a small solar panel.

Although the market price of the solar lamp is ₹500, villagers can buy it at a subsidised ₹200. The difference of ₹300 is contributed by Idea Cellular. Of the ₹200, ₹80 goes to the cluster’s corpus, ₹55 to IIT-Bombay and ₹65 is absorbed as the operational cost — rent of the assembly room, and honorarium and transport for the women.

Until mid-July, 86 women had assembled 19,450 lamps at different units; of these, 14,700 had been distributed in 90 villages. Each woman makes ₹10 for assembly and ₹15 for distribution. Until July, each of them had, on an average, made ₹5,000. However, there are exceptions. Maya Roat, 30, has been religiously walking the 7 km to her cluster office at Antri. She used to toil all day as a farm labourer, but this work has restored her dignity. In three months, she has earned ₹13,000. “I have never seen so much money in my life. I don’t know what to do with it!” she beams.

Rukmani and her friend, Babli Devi, 47, of Padli Gujreshwar village, have managed to make even more. Babli made a tidy ₹20,000 over two months. “It all depends on how much you can work. There’s more income in distribution, so I focus on sales,” she reveals. Like Babli, Rukmani is a star saleswoman. She sold 1,300 lamps in the first month and made ₹19,500. She has now rented a small shop for ₹2,000 where she wants to retail solar lamps.

Before the first phase of the project ends in September, the women hope to sell 40,000 lamps. In the second phase, they will be trained to set up small-scale solar power plants and solar repairing centres.

Solanki has bigger plans. “We want to make sure that no child in India has to give up studies because his/her home is without electricity. At Dungarpur, I learnt that rural families spend an average of ₹200-250 on electricity for a single-phase domestic connection. I am working on a model where I can completely take them off the grid by providing them with three LED lights, one flashlight and a mobile phone charger for ₹250 a month,” he elaborates. The expansion plans indicate sustained work opportunities for Dungarpur’s team of solar ‘sahelis’ and they are indeed ready for the challenge.

Renu Rakesh (© Women’s Feature Service)

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