The villages of Bilra and Dhoria may not be lined with gold, but they are definitely lined with solar panels, which are visible atop every house.
Just about 85km from Delhi, close to Garh Ganga in Amroha district, Uttar Pradesh, both villages had electricity in the late 1980s thanks to a temporary connection secured through a politician. A flash flood a few years later uprooted electric poles, wreaked havoc and plunged the village in darkness.
The village went back to the
For two and a half decades, village elders ran from pillar to post, trying in vain to restore their electricity connection. Finally, in 2009, they gave up hope and decided to opt for solar power. Today, of the 50 households in Bilra, 43 have SHLs (solar home lighting systems), while in Dhoria 87 of the 110 homes are lit up. Fans and television are also in use now.
“In my school days we used to study in the light of a kerosene lamp. Now we have proper light to study,” says Anuj, a college-goer.
For senior citizen Sardar Singh, security is the prime concern. He feels the four solar streetlights allow women and children to move freely even after sunset. The crime rate has fallen and there are hardly any incidents of insect bites, says the village pradhan (head), Prem Singh. Other residents echo his sentiment. He also recalls how kerosene leakage from a dibhi had caused a major fire in the past. “Now with solar power there is no such risk.”
Savita’s family home in Bilra village, for instance, has a two-light solar system for the rooms. For the kitchen she bought a small battery-run lamp, which she charges through the house’s solar power connection. “I can charge the mobile phone as well,” she says happily.
Other villages in the district were recently brought under the solar umbrella. Although electric poles were installed in Ikona village way back in 2005, it could not be connected to a grid without clearance from the forest department. The darkness in this remote and backward village ended in 2013 after SHLs were installed.
Today around 100 households are solar-lit. Village pradhan Brahmraj Singh swears by its positive impact on life and the education of local schoolchildren.
The country’s first regional rural bank, Prathama has energised these villages and 35 more in western Uttar Pradesh through its Solar Jyoti programme, launched in 2005. Loans are provided on easy terms and the supply, installation and after-sale service of solar lighting systems are taken care of.
The focus is on villages that are not connected to a power grid or face erratic supply. According to Satyaveer Singh, proprietor of Satyam Enterprises, which has signed an MOU for solar lighting with Prathama, nearly 65 per cent of the saturated villages (where at least 75 per cent of the households use solar power) are connected to the grid but prefer solar power over it.
Narangpur is the latest to opt for solar power despite its connection to a power grid. The village was declared solar saturated in June last year and has six solar streetlights.
People in all the solar-lit villages say the same thing — it is better to have five-six hours of light when it is needed instead of the erratic power supplied late in the night.
Though solar power calls for initial investment, the available subsidy brings it within reach of many villagers.
A standard two-light solar system costs ₹14,500. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy offers a capital subsidy of ₹3,996 and bank charges 10 per cent interest for a loan of ₹13,000. The instalments are payable monthly/half-yearly or annually.
The demand for solar power in the State has been increasing over the years. Prathama Bank has chalked out plans to equip 10 new villages with solar power this year.
“We have set a target of installing one lakh SHL units by 2015-16,” says Mahendra Singh Arora, Chairman of Prathama Bank.
The writer is a New Delhi-based journalist