The condition of the village till a few years back was no different. 3 years ago, when CLEAN member Gram Oorja first intervened in the village to introduce the concept of solar lighting, people were hesitant to give it a try and doubtful about the outcome. Persistent efforts from Gram Oorja however ensured that people took a chance with solar power and thereby a micro grid of 18 kWp was successfully installed in the village.
“Solar power has come as a comfort factor to us. Children no longer study under the dim light of the earthen lamp. We now use a ceiling fan in summers. I have a personal motor to water my agricultural land. This kind of convenience was beyond my imagination” says Pitambar, with obvious glee in his eyes.
Pitambar and his community members have taken exemplary ownership of the micro grid and are happily maintaining it through a corpus generated by monthly contributions from the community members who have formed a Village Energy Committee under Gram Oorja’s supervision. There is also a shop now within the village with a Xerox machine. Earlier, community members had to travel for a minimum of two hours, even if they wanted to photocopy a single document. There are many such life changing examples emerging out of this village after the solar powered micro grid was established.
The community members are delighted with Gram Oorja’s intervention and aspire to use more solar powered products in the future that will keep enhancing their quality of life.