By Lea Goelnitz:
A village that is a six-hour train ride from New Delhi has been realising a sustainable and innovative lifestyle for almost 40 years already. [envoke_twitter_link]Tilonia is far off the electrical grid, yet fully solar electrified and self-sufficient[/envoke_twitter_link]. As if this would not be enough, the local [envoke_twitter_link]Barefoot College trains illiterate women to become solar engineers and spread the light[/envoke_twitter_link].
Local Problem, Local Solution
In Tilonia, a village in the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan, Bacchi from Bihar is soldering the charge controller, which is later attached to a solar panel.
She is one of about 300 million people in India who are still without power.
Bihar is one of the poorest states of India. Its social and economic development lags behind other states for decades already. About 85% of Biharis live in villages and according to the 2011 census not even half of the women in rural areas are literate. Before she came to Tilonia, Bacchi had no idea about solar energy.
The Barefoot College, located near Kishangarh, the marble city of India, has been providing basic services and solutions to problems in rural communities for more than 40 years, with the goal to make them self-sufficient and sustainable.
Since 1989, the unusual college focuses on using solar energy to provide access to electricity in remote and isolated parts of India.
The philosophy of the Barefoot College, where only illiterate and semi-literate people are allowed to study, is rooted in the Gandhian model – the control, management and ownership of technology should be in the hands of the people. In order to fight poverty and mass migration from villages to the slums of big cities, the life in villages needs to be improved. Ordinary village people should be trusted to have the competency to offer local solutions to local problems.
College-educated people cannot attend the classes. “Educated people disrupt our system. They ask too many questions. Like, what is inside the charge controller? How does it work? We do not know. And for this purpose we do not need to know,” explains Ramniwas, who works for the Barefoot College for almost 30 years already.
The puppeteer grew up in a village in the area and was an accountant before he joined the project in Tilonia. He tours the villages with a puppet show, explaining equality and raising awareness against discrimination. There are still villages in which the lower castes are not allowed to share the well with the higher castes.
Ramniwas proudly declares: “But here in Tilonia, there are no caste – or gender barriers. Here, we are upholding the constitution,” which prohibits any form of discrimination based on caste.
According to Bunker Roy, the founder of the Barefoot College, it is important to concentrate on practical skills that will make a visible difference in the lives of people.
Tilonia demonstrates how solar electrified villages can be totally self-sufficient and environmentally friendly. “Instead of subsidizing the rich indirectly, subsidize the solar systems directly on the condition that the poor pay for the repair and maintenance. This will generate over 50,000 jobs in the rural areas and prevent migration. This is not a dream on paper. It is actually happening. But Piyush Goyal, the minister for new and renewable energy, has not had time to hear how it could be scaled up all over India,” Roy told The Indian Express in April 2015.
One Panel On One Roof At A Time
Bacchi Devi does not know exactly how old she is, she assumes she is over 30 maybe older than 40. She came to Barefoot College with her son, who is either eight or twelve years old and attends school in the village while his mother is trained to become a solar engineer.
Her husband is an auto-rickshaw driver in Delhi. She has been to the capital before, but still she was anxious about coming to Rajasthan 1.200 km away from her home in the district of Beethia near the border to Nepal.
But six weeks into the program, she is relieved, the food – roti and rice – is the same as at home and she is amazed about her achievements so far. She says, she is learning engineering, like children learn to write, slowly, but getting there. She learns through repetition, trial and error. She sets up the charge controller as many times as it takes her to remember how it is done right. She figures out the resistance through colour-codes.
As all graduates from Barefoot College, she will be equipped with all the tools and material she will need to set up, maintain and repair the solar panels in her community
Bacchi’s remote village is very poor, like most people there she has no work. But being in charge of solar electrifying her village will provide her with income, paid by the district government. She expects her community to be supportive and happy about her return with panels for each household. She wants her village to be the same as Tilonia. She wants more than light.