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VISITS TO VARIOUS PARTNER NGOS AND FIELD VISITS (IITKGP)

 

   Visit of Tripura for Pre and Post MSD Installation Survey

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From 18 November to 21 November two Members of MSD team from IIT Kharagpur Visited Tripura State for assessment of ground realty of Micro Solar Dome Installation. NB Institute of Rural Technology (NBIRT), Tripura is the core group NGO for Installation MSD in the State.  NBIRT Tripura has give assurance for installation of Total 1000 MSD in first Phase of Installation. The team visited the in the beneficiary village and talk to the people about their experience of MSD.

Tour activity

Day 1: Visited NBIRT Tripura office for interaction with officials and interaction with training program conducted by NBIRT Tripura for Installer from North East State

Day 2: Visited Herma village (An adopted village by NBIRT Tripura) near to Agartala.

Day 3: Visited Narangpara Village of West Tripura district

Day 4: Visited Sekerkote Village where NBIRT has plan to install MSD in first phase of Installation

Some of key points from the visit can be described as follows:

• For the selection of beneficiary village NBIRT choose the ST community village where at least one local person from sleeted is available for installation and maintenance of MSD in the village. As the NBIRT officials stated they keep in mind that for selection the selected village is only from SC/ST community.

• For Installation of MSD they will use Arkaneer as master hub for receive the MSD transported from manufactures and then they send MSD from Arkaneer to beneficiary village. Road transport is best available medium for sending MSD to NBIRT Tripura.

• We found one case of MFI’s network in one village so we talk to that person how he benefits from MFI’s. He told that there are one MFI supported by Bandhan Bank they offer him Solar Lighting Equipment for light their home. In that equipment there is one solar panel and 3 LEDs total cost of Rs.7000 which is to repay in monthly easy instalments.

 

       Visit to Lailunga block, Raigarh, Chhattisgarh Operating NGO: PRADAN

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Lailunga is a tehsil/ Block (CD) in the Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh. We had gone for a pre-installation survey visit to Lailunga on 20th December, 2019. We inquired the people working in the NGO and the beneficiaries selected for installation. We found that the people are well aware about the product and they were very much excited to install MSDs in their houses.

Training and Awareness programme: Training program by NBIRT was conducted at Lailunga block on 6-9th December, 2019. 23 fitters from 20 villages of the block participated in this. The NGO people also learned and spread the awareness among the village residents through meetings in each village. The people have good information about MSD, its qualities and ways of maintenance.

Selection of Village and Beneficiaries: The NGO collected demographic information of the villages from secondary sources and selected 20 villages, which are SC/ST villages according 2011 census, for the implementation. They selected at least one person from each village, who were responsible to interact with the people and prepare a chart of the willing participants. The persons selected for preparing the chart, were later given training by NBIRT and they are responsible for installation and maintenance of MSDs in their village.

Visit to Bhagabatipur Village In Chandaka, Odisha (Post Installation Survey Report)

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Bhagabatipur village is located in Chandaka Tehsil of Khordha district in Odisha. CARD is the NGO which has taken the initiative for installing MSDs in the villages near Chandaka in Odisha. The NGO shows a positive interest in this project and is keenly interested in this project. Total 23 MSDs were provided by NBIRT to 23 households in the village 11 months ago in June 2019.

The village is entirely a ST village with utmost need of MSD as a source of light because the village lacks electricity grid facility. The area was selected by the NGO.

The village is very well aware about the MSD technology and people are keen to install this in their houses. The villagers have built a solar water pump with the help of solar panels through MFI help. The village is predominantly a ST village yet, there are some unreserved category people who are interested to pay money and install MSD.

The beneficiaries were selected on the basis of their caste and income levels. As the village is a ST village, the economically weaker sections of the ST community who were interested in MSD were selected as beneficiaries.

Various purposes for which msd is being used:

• Cooking at night.

• Other domestic works.

• Children study at night with MSD light.

• Use in economic purposes for making local liquor and brooms.

• Used in schools and community centres.

• Used as an alternate source of electricity.

• Used for charging mobile phones.

 

 

Visit to Ghastoria Village, Manbazar – 1, Purulia (Pre - Installation)

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Ghastoria is a medium size village located in Manbazar - 1 Block of Purulia district, West Bengal with total 172 families residing. The Ghastoria village has population of 761 of which 397 are males while 364 are females as per Population Census 2011. This village also a ST dominated village, here about 660 people are ST and only 37 People are from SC community as per 2011 census.

SPADE, one NGO associated with the dissemination of MSD for the marginalized communities project, has selected this village for the installation of MSDs. Though the Ngo has not selected the beneficiaries, but we surveyed some households and discussed with the people of this area and some important points are pointed out these are:

• Lack of Knowledge: Many people don’t know about MSDs so they now not interested

• Absence or Erratic Electricity supply: many of the households are not having electricity connection. The main source of lighting for their houses is kerosene lamps. They were saying that, they use 4-5 liters of kerosene every month, that cost around 200 rupees.

• Want to use MSD for Animal Husbandry: Many of the villagers are having domesticated animals in their houses. They are planning to install the MSD in the places they are keeping the animals.

Apart from the reasons stated above, the village has a community place that is used by the SHG members for organizing different meetings and discussing their plans etc. the same will be used for keeping the MSDs to be installed in the village.

 

Visit to Sasangdih Village, Badabazar, Purulia (Post-Installation)

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Sasangdih is a ST village located in Barabazar, Block of Purulia district, West Bengal with total 126 families residing. SPADE, the operating NGO, has installed 52 numbers of MSDs, as distributed by NBIRT, in three blocks of Badabazar, which includes Sasangdih village. As per the verses of one of the residents, the installation process was done before one year, but, SPADE employee told us that the MSDs are only 6 months of age. Whatever may be the case, the domes are in a bad condition, either of the lack of maintenance or the beneficiaries are not properly aware of the technology.

 

Uses of MSDs by the beneficiaries

Domes installed in the village are being used for different purpose by the residents, such as:

 

Cooking: The majority of the beneficiaries are using it as a light bulb during evening or night during the time of preparing their food. Badani Hembram, one of the beneficiaries, stated that “This is the source of light for me at the time of cooking in the evening”.

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Animal Rearing: Almost all of the villagers are having some domestic animals, especially, cow, goat, sheep, hen, and duck, with them. But the reared animals stay in dark during night as the places, where they keep the animals, has no light. Many of the beneficiaries want to install the MSDs in these places. As one of the beneficiary, Ramani Tudu said, the light will help the animals to not stay in dark and at the same time she will have a look on the animals and can protect them from the wild animals.

 

Mobile Charging: Some of the beneficiaries are charging their phones with the help of MSD. As some of the residents like Ramani Tudu are not provided with electricity connection, they solely depend on the MSD for charging their phones. Therefore, this helps them to stay socially connected with their relatives and friends.

 

Studying: Children in the families get the light after sunset for their study or doing home works. One of the respondents, Pabitra Hembram, stated that his brother studies in the evening time, sitting beside his mother as she prepares their dinner.