When Chintadevi of Javar village received the first payment of ₹1,750 for her work at the solar lamp assembling and distribution centre at Khajuri in Dudhi block of Sonbhadra district, Uttar Pradesh, she was overjoyed.

“I bought sweets worth ₹60 to celebrate my first earning ever and the rest was paid for school tuition fee for my son.” Chintadevi, Secretary of Self Help Group (SHG) Mahadeva Aajeevika Swayam Sahayita Samooh, says though they have a small land holding, her husband has to also work as a farm hand to make both ends meet.

The money Chintadevi earned in the subsequent months helped the family pay for medical treatment of her father-in-law who is suffering from a heart ailment. “I can assemble over 30 solar lamps in a day and last month I was able to earn ₹6,945,” she says.

She is among 19 women working at Jeevan Jyoti Sankool Strisangathan ADC centre (Assembling and Distribution Centre). Opened in September last year, this is the first centre in Uttar Pradesh under the 70 lakh solar study lamp scheme funded by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and implemented by Energy Efficiency Services Ltd. (EESL).

The scheme aims not only at distributing solar lamps to school going students in villages, which have over 50 per cent of unelectrified households in Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha apart from Uttar Pradesh, but is also generating a livelihood option.

State Rural Livelihood Mission and IIT Bombay are also involved in the scheme, which aims at curbing kerosene dependency, supporting education and reaching out to the most marginalised communities

In Uttar Pradesh, the women were selected from SHGs in the Dudhi block. The only qualification required was education up to Class V and a home within a radius of 3 km for those involved in the assembling process.

A typical 9.30 am to 5 pm job, the 10 women who assemble solar lamps and the nine who distribute them were given a 10-day training. While the women who assemble the solar lamps get ₹12 per solar lamp, distributors receive ₹17, the extra five towards transport.

Shailendra Dwivedi, project manager of the scheme in Uttar Pradesh explains how they first carry out an intensive survey to understand the requirement for solar lamps and then convince the villagers to use them.

Nazrani, pursuing an MA in sociology, says her work involves moving from village to village demonstrating the use of the solar lamp and urging them to buy it at a subsidised rate of ₹100 against the actual cost of ₹600. “We discourage the use of kerosene lamps, explaining how bad it is for the eyes as well as the environment,” she says.“I am now confident I can take up any job after the project is over.” Anjali, part of the distribution team, targets schools and get orders for solar lamps from students. “The money I earn goes to buying inputs for cultivation,” she says.

Out of the 70 lakh solar lamps to be distributed across five States, 36 lakh solar lamps will go to 115 blocks in 29 districts of the State by the end of this year. By then 4,000 women would have also earned wages under the scheme.

S P Garnaik, Chief General Manager (Technical), EESL is confident that the skills imparted to the women will go a long away in transforming them into solar entrepreneurs.

Chintadevi and some others at the ADC are already thinking on those lines. “There is a lot of demand for such solar lamps,” she says. “I will take a loan from my SHG and start a kiosk for repairing and selling solar lamps, which I will assemble myself.”

The writer is a senior journalist based in Delhi

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