In the Virat Nagar block there are 125 villages. Electricity has been provided but it is used only for agriculture purposes. Most of the houses are without electricity because the government does not provide free electricity for lighting up houses. The villagers are reluctant to shell out money for lighting up their houses- it is a hefty payment and they do not earn that much and even if they did they are not willing to shell that much money for something trivial as lighting up a house. The few who have electricity in their houses have done so illegally. Most of the houses therefore depend on kerosene lanterns.
TERI has come up with an idea. One house in the village has dedicated solar panels. Here solar lanterns are charged in the morning. In the evening the villagers come and collect these lanterns. They have to pay Rs 2/- per lantern per day but apparently this is about the same cost as kerosene lantern so they pay without murmur. The lanterns can be used for 4 hours at most but that is enough. In the morning, they drop the lanterns back at the house for charging. It has been implemented at present in two villages in Virat Nagar block and is now going to be extended to 10 more villages.
It is a neat scheme as it is also less polluting than the kerosene lamp. I wanted to very much see the solar panels and how they done it but time was short and I could not check it out. In the next visit maybe...
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