Indian Social Enterprise Lighting up Village Schools

The students at the Mahalaxmi School in Nivaragi village in Karnataka, India carry a unique product in their school bags every day, apart from books, crayons and snacks. This product is a lightweight pocket-sized LED lamp charged by solar cells in schools. These lamps are provided free of cost to children in villages that have no electricity.

SELCO Solar Light, a Bangalore based social enterprise, is running this project, called "Light for Education," in non-electrified villages in the state. SELCO has already lit more than 120,000 homes and 2,000 organizations, and touched the lives of half a million people since its inception in 1995.

Light for Education (LFE) project was piloted last year, and it has grown quickly to cover 40 non-electrified schools across Karnataka. The response to the project can be judged from the experience of a government high school in a remote village, 100 km from Bangalore. The project provided 40 lights to school students, and it created an immediate interest among the remaining students. The school has already sought 70 more lights and anticipates further demand.

The LFE project includes a centralized solar charging system, pocked sized batteries and LED study lamps. The solar charging system is installed at the school. Each student is provided with a lamp and a detachable battery. The lamps are kept at home where the child can study at night. Batteries are carried by the students in their school bags every day to charge them. After the day is over, they bring the charged batteries back home.

Ananth Aravamudam, a technical expert at SELCO Labs says that this social entrepreneurial project is already gathering more momentum. He says, "At least 10 donor organisations are interested in supporting such programmes. We already have nearly 10 donors, and the bulk of funds have come from Menda Charitable Trust."

The base cost of this lighting project works out to be about $30 per student. Schools that join the LFE program bear about 25 percent of the cost of the project. SELCO finances the balance through social funding or donations. Maintenance after the first year is provided for by the schools. SELCO recommends that every participating school should collect an annual usage fee of $3 per student to cover maintenance costs, and make the program self-sustaining.

Photo Credit: hisks