Cultural Use of Renewable Energy

The month of May is the time for marriages in the Bhil homeland. Almost everyday there are a slew of marriages going on. The centrepiece of these marriages is the night long dancing to the tune of drums and pepariyas or a kind of wind instrument in which girls and boys and men and women enjoy themselves pepped up by the power of mahua liquor. In Gandhwani Tehsil of Dhar district there was a significant difference this time round. Normally the nightlong dancing has to be lighted up with a generator. However, this time solar lanterns were used. This was possible because a new scheme is being implemented there by an NGO in which it has set up a solar photovoltaic panel powered charger in some villages and supplied a local bhil youth in these villages with fifty lanterns. This youth charges rupees four a day as rent from any villagers who would want to use the solar lanterns at night. The scheme is running very well because the earlier scenario wherein people could draw free electricity from the grid has changed drastically. Now the Madhya Pradesh State Electricity Board has cut off the electricity at the transformer for a village that has a high proportion of defaulters and electricity thieves. So there is a great demand for these solar lanterns. Especially during the examination season that just preceded the marriage season when students cramming found these lanterns to be their saviours. One of the solar lantern entrepreneurs was more enterprising and decided to cash in on the marriage season also. He calculated that the rent of a generator and diesel for one night came to about a thousand rupees. So he offered the a set of twenty lanterns for a total sum of four hundred rupees giving more light at less cost to the client. This was an instant success and so many marriages have been celebrated in the light of solar lanterns this year.