It takes a village to spark a light

Amey Mane a 10yearold Class 5 student from Satararsquos Manyachidawadi village says he no longer sees power outages like he did until a year ago and credits it to the 100 per cent solarpowered hamlet he calls home He says ldquoNow I can do my homework whenever I want Earlier we had two solarpowered LED lights in many houses But today with fullscale solar panels on every roof we have the comfort of electricity aroundtheclockrdquoThe urbantorural landscape changes quickly in India However as one enters Manyachiwadi through Karad town in Satara district the noticeable sights arenrsquot the usual rural challenges such as poverty and poor infrastructure as seen in rest of India but the lush greenery of the Sahyadri range of the Western Ghats and the lower population densityThe hamlet which gets its name from its 95 per cent locals that boast the surname ldquoManerdquo became Maharashtrarsquos first village to be powered entirely by solar energy around a month ago and now has a negative net bill This means the surplus electricity generated through the residential photovoltaic systems on every roof is transferred to the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co Ltd Even hard copies of electricity bills are not sent to the villagemdashan attempt to go cent per cent greenA total of 102 solar panels have been installed in the village making it Maharashtrarsquos first fully solarpowered villageApart from the households the villagersquos 102 rooftop solar installations provide electricity for the local school gram panchayat office street lamps CCTV cameras and the villagersquos public water supply systemMany notions of rural life are shattered in this tiny village of 420 citizens around 80 km from Satara city With cash crops like sugarcane soybean groundnut wheat and rice grown throughout the year its own water supply system CCTV network and reinforced concrete cement RCC roads Manyachiwadi appears to be a prosperous village and the solar power supply is just another feather in its cap This small village boasts facilities that are scarce in many Indian metro cities like the RCC roads and welllit streetsHowever things were not always this way Currently nearby villages in the district are still underdeveloped with no signs of solar panels dealing with issues that are common in any Indian rural communityThe electrical setup seen in the photo is used to store the solar energy from the photovoltaic systems and for earthingSo what made a difference for this hamlet The answer lies in the proactiveness of its Womenrsquos SelfHelp Groups SHGs The 231 women in this community who make up the majority of the village are either farmers or homemakers and struggled to do their chores postsunset as power outages were quite unpredictable until last year Men on the other hand are mainly farmersRekha Gunjalkar a homemaker explains ldquoOur work was halted due to darkness Even the kids were unable to complete their homework because power cuts could last up to sixeight hours per day It is quite tough to work with dhibri lamps kerosene lamps and candles So in the gram sabha which convenes every week we agreed to start an initiative to use solar power to light every house with two LED lamps The government was also increasing electricity rates so a reason for choosing solar power was that once you invest in it there is hardly any maintenance for 25 years We just need to wipe the solar panels during the summers as there is dust depositrdquoRavindra Mane SarpanchPadmavati Asalkar a homemaker says ldquoWomen are still the backbone of any household We get all the support from the men in our families but when it comes to daily household responsibilities itrsquos the women who bear the brunt of managing without proper electricity Cooking cleaning looking after the childrenmdashit all becomes much harder in the dark So when the power cuts became too unpredictable we knew we could not wait for someone else to solve our problem As a group we decided to take matters into our own hands We may not have technical knowledge but we understand our needs better than anyone That is how we came up with the idea of solarpowered LED lamps for our village This initiative which started in 2010 has transformed our community By 2019 every house had two LED lamps powered by a small solar panelrdquoReflecting on the past month they have spent with 24X7 electricity supply Vijaya a homemaker says ldquoThe village now feels more connected to the world with access to TV and radio 24X7 and our mobile phones are always charged Earlier our daily routine was set around power cuts Today there is peace of mind Before we were constantly stressed about when the electricity would go out and we had to rush through chores These solar panels changed our lives completely We even get leisure time today for ourselvesrdquoA solarpowered street lamp in Manyachiwadi PicsSatej ShindeBajirao Mane a local resident told midday that households in Manyachiwadi use more electrical appliances than typical villages in India including refrigerators TVs and coolers alongside essentials like fans and LED lights ldquoWe donrsquot have air conditioners yet but Irsquom sure wersquoll see them around soon Being situated amid the hills one of the most important appliances still missing here is the electric geyser Some homes have solar geysers but they are quite expensive I believe that in the near future more families will opt for electric geysers allowing us to phase out the traditional woodfire method for heating water as we aim to become a fully green villagerdquoWhat began as an initiative by the Womenrsquos SHGs gained further momentum as the men of the village joined in to support the cause Sarjerao Mane a member of the gram panchayat told midday ldquoThe men in this village have always stood by the women Our village functions like a family Once we secured some electricity in the early and mid2010s we began discussing how we could improve other aspects of our community like having a proper road to the village having a continuous power supply etc Today we have achieved almost everything we need for a quality life At 75 I have witnessed this village transform over the last two decades Now we have reached a point where we ask ourselves is there anything else we are still missing The villagers also took the initiative to get installed a cellphone tower in the village ensuring 24X7 4G connectivity hererdquoPadmavti Asalkar L and Rekha GunjalkarThe residents explained the transformation that is possible when a community rises above politics and comes together for the welfare of the society They have managed to achieve on a microlevel what many communities only aspire to Sarpanch Ravindra Mane explains ldquoThere are no elections for the gram sabha here We all come together and choose the most proactive person with a proven track record of working for the community as the head And we have had many people like that And we make sure that we meet every week We have not held an election for Sarpanch in over 30 years One reason Manyachiwadi has become a model village is that today our priority is that we should become a sustainable village and utilise every government scheme that is implemented regardless of which party is in powerrdquoGram sabha panel member Sarjerao Mane adds ldquoOur neighbouring villages have not developed as much because they are still caught up in petty politics We on the other hand focus solely on the welfare of society The results are visible all aroundrdquoSarjerao Mane and Suresh ManeProudly pointing at the covered gutters that open in the fields where wastewater is used to irrigate orchards Sarjerao Mane says ldquoWe have better drainage systems than any town or city This shift began in 2001 Since then Maharashtra has seen eight governments and we have made the most of every scheme introduced for the villagesrdquoHe adds ldquoThe effective implementation of schemes has the power to transform entire communities We have fully utilised programs like the JalJeevan Mission Smart Gram Yojana Pradhan Mantri Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana Majhi Vasundhara Abhiyan etc If you look at similar villages in the Desh region of Maharashtra which is relatively prosperous despite the favourable climate and rich soil implementation of schemes often falls short For solar panels we secured a R1 crore subsidy from the state government in two phases R50 lakh each We made sure to use every penny for our village Our community has always been aware and proactive and we always had clear communication With the help of our guardian minister Shambhuraj Desai the MLA from the Patan Assembly constituency we received state funds to install 16 streetlight poles However after installation we noticed one household and its adjoining street were left out The village quickly came together and wrote to the minister again requesting three additional poles This strong sense of community has been ingrained in us since we began working together in 2001rdquoAsalkar Wada the oldest house in the village built in 1947 is also powered by solar panels The fourth generation of the family can be seen sitting at the housersquos thresholdShiv Sena MLA Shambhuraj Desai also the guardian minister of Thane district could not be reached for a comment on the implementation of schemes at the grassroots level in MaharashtraAnother example of the villagersquos strong sense of community was seen during the road widening and modern drainage construction projects Residents shared stories of how people voluntarily gave up portions of their land to make way for these developmentsmdasha stark contrast to the conflicts often seen in cities where even a few centimetres of land leads to disputesSarjerao Mane and other members of the gram sabha remark that while governments often seek credit for their villagersquos development it is truly the community that has driven the progress ldquoWe are in the news because the real work has been done by the people of this villagerdquo Sarjerao Mane says ldquoIf this sense of community is nurtured among the people across India initiatives like solar panel installations and the Jal Jeevan Mission can be implemented in just a few weeks Itrsquos the communityrsquos collective effort that makes these schemes succeed not just government interventionrdquo he addsRavindra Mane the Sarpanch shares ldquoWe have 4G connectivity and almost every household has a smartphone However we are yet to tap into social media to bring tourists to our village With the solar panels providing roundtheclock electricity and nearly every amenity in place like wide roads and CCTVs we are planning to launch agritourism soon Out of the 420 residents only 272 currently live here as some of our youth have migrated to cities for studies and jobs We intend to collaborate with the young people who have stayed back to promote Manyachiwadi on social mediardquo231Women in this community who make up the majority of the village and are the ones who spearheaded the project