It was 4 pm in the afternoon when Aruna returned home from school. She had a lot of homework and needed to get it all done before she went to bed. It was dark when she entered the dining room – the sun sets hours earlier in this part of the country. She groped around and eventually found the matchbox.
Finally, Aruna could study in the light of the last candle stub in the house. Tomorrow, she will ask mummy to buy more from the market.
India’s north east has always had the misfortune of being neglected, especially when it comes to accessibility and electricity.
Take Arunachal Pradesh for example: the home of Tame Chung Chung, one of India’s most remote villages only recently connected to civilization by the army. It is also home to over 900 villages without any electricity.
This, despite the government’s efforts to bring light to the state. Over 150 memorandums have been signed for hydel projects and promises have been made to bring solar power to 16,000 households.
In all this, concerned citizens have taken it upon themselves to support communities in Arunachal Pradesh and the north east. Debabrata Choudhury aims to raise ₹1,25,000 under the Further & Beyond Foundation’s Ride To Light: The Mishmi Hills Challenge initiative.
This is North East India’s first fully-supported cycle tour. 25 Participants will ride 300 kilometres across Lohit, Dibang, and Lower Dibang Valley districts of Arunachal Pradesh, to support The Batti Project – an initiative providing basic lighting to North East India’s remotest inhabitants.
So far, through the support of people on public forums, they have been able to bring solar powered lighting systems to more than 25 villages comprising of over 280 tribal homes.
Located in Arunachal Pradesh, most of these homes are only reachable by treks on foot through rivers and jungles.
The remoteness of this district makes it a difficult project for support to reach here and hence this very remoteness became fuel to the journey of the Further and Beyond Foundation.
The expedition continues and so does their willingness to light up more homes.
You can do your bit to support Mansa and Lokesh take the RTL initiative deeper into the areas and light up more homes by going here.