By Sanskriti Pandey:
“Gradually, we should get these facilities. Because it is our right.”
Sipahi Mandi, a villager from Ayodhya Hills in the Purulia district of West Bengal, had never seen electricity before. Lying in one of the remotest and most inaccessible corners of India, these 70-80 villages survive solely on single-cultivation paddy farming. With no basic health, sanitation or infrastructure facilities, there had been instances when an ailing patient would die en route to the nearest hospital. Then, Mlinda Foundation decided to light up a path towards their development.
“When we did the first installation at village Dhanchattani …(and) they saw a bulb light up, the smiles on their faces… witnessing that was an out of the world feeling for me,” says Bony Tarafder, Project Officer, Mlinda. Social funding platform Milaap is supporting them in their venture to install affordable, community-owned solar mini-grids across villages. Watch this video for honest, first hand accounts of how sustainable energy is powering their lives.
To know more about this initiative, click here.
