Access to electricity in India has been a major concern with around 43% of the rural population still deprived of access to electricity (Census of India, 2011). While main grid extension has been the predominant mode of electrification with almost 96% coverage of inhabited villages (CEA, 2014), it has many shortcomings. Many of the grid electrified villages in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and North-eastern states receive electricity supply with frequent blackouts and brownouts.

Further, many electrified villages have low household electrification level (Palit and Chaurey, 2011). Various studies highlight the barriers including technical, financial, institutional and governance, existing in provision of electricity services to rural India through grid extension (World Bank, 2010; Palit and Chaurey, 2011; Chaurey et al, 2013; Palit and Sarangi, 2014).

Literature also highlights that rural electrification program using renewable energy sources in India, carried out by the Government, NGOs and private sector agencies, in the past three decades have achieved great success (Buragohain, 2012; Harish et al., 2013, Palit, 2013, Palit and Sarangi, 2014, Borah et al. 2014).

Dark byroads, silent lanes and lethargic vibes were the “normal” evenings even at 7 pm in the month of July in the Binawar village of Budaun district, Uttar Pradesh. The small village has 1038 households and a population of 6032. It is an appalling fact that just 4 – 5 hours away from India’s capital Delhi, this particular village faced a huge power outage huge and electricity crisis. As a result, the days ended early as soon as the sun went down, women get inside the house fearing safety, children cannot study or play in the dark, and men get engaged in non-productive activities, also increasing anti-social activities like alcoholism, thefts, fights, etc.

Not just Binawar, access to electricity in India has been a major concern with a large percentage of rural population still deprived of regular supply of electricity. While main grid extension has been the predominant mode of electrification, many of the grid electrified villages in the states of Uttar Pradesh receive electricity supply with frequent blackouts and brownouts.

In the wake of fast depleting conventional energy resources and alarming environmental pollution, efficient energy management has become a hot topic and main concern. Electrical energy plays an important role in the overall development of any country, in improving the quality of life and hence, in enhancing Human Development Index. But, in India, despite substantial rural electrification programmes, there are still 80,000 villages un-electrified, most of them are in remote areas where it is highly expensive to extend the conventional electric grid. So, the all- round development of the rural community, living below the poverty line, has remained a dream only!

AROH Foundation has been implementing Holistic Rural Development Projects in around 60 needy villages of Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Meghalaya in association with HDFC Bank’s CSR Initiative “Parivartan”. It was a matter of concern for AROH as a lot of youngsters, children and women were wasting their precious time and getting involved in unproductive and anti-social activities.

Lack of access to electricity is a major constraint on growth and development in rural areas. A large number of rural settlements are still without access to electricity, eventually cutting off the access to clean water and safety within the villages.

To overcome the challenge of power outage, it was decided to help the households with solar home lighting systems which give a low cost option to light up dark homes in rural areas. The home lighting system allows two LED lights, a fan and a mobile charger to work on the system.

It was the first day in the life of Neelam Devi, 35 years, when she could engage herself even at late hours. Thrilled to have her kitchen lighted up the lady said, “I can’t really remember any day, when I could even see clearly what my home like was after sunset. Had to cook before dark, my children would finish home and school work before sunset and we would prefer sleeping at 7pm only. Only my husband shall seldom use the time to consume alcohol. But can you see now! After finishing our work, I do my embroidery later in the night. My children can do their work, as per convenience and their father is doing his daily calculations and preparatory work for his grocery shop. Sometimes the ladies of the village shall gather for small chit chats too. It’s so lively now! All because of our solar home lights within the house and solar street lights right outside.”

Elucidating the concept, Dr Neelam Gupta, Founder, AROH Foundation said, “In these areas, even access to a small amount of electricity could be a game changer and can provide the first step out of poverty by providing new skills, creating more entrepreneurs and source of income while utilizing 4 – 5 hours later in the night.

This also leads to improvements in health, access to clean drinking water, education, communications and digitization. Harnessing renewable energy sources for cooking, lighting & other amenities in such villages is the basic need of the hour. Using Renewable Energy have emerged as useful power sources for applications such as home lighting, street lighting, water pumping etc. – a revolutionary breakthrough in rural community development. AROH is committed towards climate conservation and this shall be a baby wave towards gigantic strides towards it.”

AROH Foundation installed more than 5000 solar street lights, installed more than 200 solar water pumps and distributed Solar mini home lights to 5000 households by far. A switch to renewable energy can reduce global warming emissions. Being nearly inexhaustible, solar energy can also help stabilize energy prices, along with providing many other economic benefits. Solar energy has the greatest potential of any almost-continuous energy source. This was planned to serve the dual purpose of relieving dependency from electrical support and a simultaneously reducing carbon footprints.