Replacing the 200 millions of kerosene lanterns in India by « solar » lanterns. It is the huge project of Lighting a Billion Live.   A project which was created  2 months ago and whose aim is to conquest Asia.

Lighting one Billion Campaign Project,

Jhansi, India,

September 29th 2008,

First days in India and already surprises,anecdotes,  some little woories when we lost our bags and discoveries. Arrived there one  day at 4:00 AM of the morning,  we meet in the middle of a city with incredible contrasts, with thousand of rickshaw, with a horrible ....traffic, and a poverty diffcult to accept for Europeans !

The planning of appointments in India will be very important and Dehli will be  a short stop.

We go first at the TERI, the organism for the development of alternative solutions for the environment led by the Dr Patchauri (President of the famous GIEC and last Nobel Price in 2007 with Al Gore), for a short appointment in order to fix the appointment of the following day in the Rajasthan.

We then meet at 4:30 Am for four hours of trio on the road with our taxi driver, Amil towards the village of  Virat Nagar.

We discover another Dehli when leaving the city so early in the morning; the main roads are empty and we leave the city within 35 mn, which is incredible according to  Amil, formula 1 pilot  at odd moments…

We then meet camels, cows, trucks or  tractors wrecks on this road where the contrast of the firing red of the deserted mountains and the green of the plains is astonishing.

Arrived on the morning, we are welcomed by Dharmpal who explains us quicly the project; he was in charge of the implementation. We then met the inhabitants of 2 small villages: Banganga and Jodhula.

« You are the first foreigners visiting us, the project having started only 2 months ago.» he explains.

There is no electricity in the 2 villages we visit like for 400 millions of Indians. People thus use  kerosene or paraffin lanterns.

The objective of the huge project Lighting a Billion Live is to replace the 200 millions of  kerosene lanterns by "solar" lanterns.

« Today, Amil explains, there are about 90 millions of Kerosene lanterns in India; this involves many fires and  breathing problems  after several years.

But the project of Teri is supposed to be exported in the whole Asia and in Africa where more than 400 Millions of lanterns are used by more than 1,6 billion of people.

«After several tests, the first project has been set up here two months ago. »

The running is very simple, a person is chosen in every village according to different criteria (commitment in the life of the village, business and financial situation…); 50 battery lanterns and solar panels are at the disposal of the chosen person who must reload it during the day. On the evening,the inhabitants of the village come and  pay 3 rupees ( about 6  Euro cents) to pick up the lanterns; the price is the one of the kerosene usually used for one evening, but the lighting is 11 times higher. The people bring it back on the morning, the lanterns are reloaded thanks to the solarn panels and this, all year long.…

On an environmental way, this allows to avoid the emission of 15 kg de CO2 and the use  45 liters of Kerosene per year. « I let you make the multiplication for the 400 millions of lanterns » Amil says !

A governmental subsidy for the alternate solutions to kerosene does exist for 20 years and takes part in the purchasing of lanterns (same thing as in France with the solar subsidy for example).

In Banganga, it is Ghoti who has been chosen to be in charge of the project in this village of 600 people. She  obtained a  little microcredit to  allow her the purchasing of the solar panels, and the part of the lanterns which is not subsidied  by the state. It is a small comapny that this beautiful 60 years old lady, created.

She explains that she intends to ask for 50 more lanterns, the business is going well !

Nevertheless, she wants to wait 6 months, so that she will have repaid the half of her microcredit.

« The step of this woman is exactly what we wanted to create, the will of undertaking. In fact, the entrepreneurship is one of the best solutions, Amil says (and some other people repeated this to us during our Asian trip.  A lot of people never try to undertake something, they always wait for the subsidy of the government or of a NGO. That is why a part of our job is to incite people to undertake in a way or in another.

We finish the day with the women's council of the village of Banganga during one hour. Great moment of discussion together where they speak about the day, their every day problems and the way they see cities of India where they have never been and which are  for them the dream of their life.

Great moment of our Indian trip…

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