India’s rural women train their African sisters in solar energy
The Barefoot College in Rajasthan which trains ordinary village folks as barefoot solar engineers, is now passing on the knowledge to rural women from Africa and some Asian countries. They are returning with huge satisfaction of being able to light up their villages. |
In the recent United Nations Climate Change talks held at Durban, one of the biggest issues has been the transfer of technology on renewable energy from developed countries to developing ones. However, what is no less important is the potential of technology transfer within developing and poorer countries. An outstanding example of this is a programme under which rural women barefoot solar engineers from India provide solar energy training to rural women from several other countries, particularly those from Africa. So for over 250 such women from nearly 25 countries have been trained during the last six to seven years at the Barefoot College campus in Tilonia village of Ajmer district (Rajasthan).
The Barefoot College has been a pioneer in the training of barefoot solar engineers picked up from ordinary village youth with low levels of formal education but high levels of motivation and commitment to improving life in villages. Generally after a six-month well-planned training (some may take a longer time) these villagers have been able to take up important responsibilities relating to installation and repair of solar energy systems in rural homes and schools. The next step was to encourage and motivate some of these more accomplished women barefoot solar engineers to take up the training of rural women from some other countries. Leela, Magan Kanwar, Nazma and Gulabo took up the difficult challenge and despite initial problems, particularly those relating to different languages, their training effort has been very successful.
I spoke to women trainees from six African countries including Chad, Sierre Leone, Zambia, Nambia, Kenya and Tanzania. Most of them were grandmothers who are committed to lighting up their remote villages using solar energy.When I spoke to some of the trainees (only very few spoke English) like Susana (from Nambia) and Monica (from Tanzania), I was pleasantly surprised at the progress they made in a few months and the confidence which their training had given them, despite problems like the language barrier. Trainers from Tilonia like Leela and Magan Kanwar had obviously found innovative ways of overcoming language problems. With little formal education, they themselves had been scared initially when they first took up solar training. But after a few years of training and on-the-job learning including installation of solar systems, they were probably the most appropriate teachers as they could understand and overcome the initial difficulties and fears of the trainees.
Barefoot solar engineers are provided a six-month training about the fabrication of charge controllers and inverters, core winding, printed circuit boards, testing, wiring, solar lanterns, installation of solar panels and repair and maintenance etc.Although most of the trainees are from African countries, some trainees have also come from Asia (for example from Bhutan and Afghanistan) and Latin America (from Bolivia). Fatuma Ababker Ibrahim came from Beyahile village in Afar (Ethiopia) for training in Tilonia as a barefoot solar engineer. Despite language and other problems, she made remarkable progress in learning new skills and returned to her village with essential equipment from Tilonia to install 90 fixed solar units. She also helped to start a rural electronic workshop in her village. Gul Zaman, a 26-year old woman from Afghanistan came to Tilonia with her husband Mohammed Jan for training in installation and maintenance of solar energy systems. They returned to their community to provide solar electricity to their village of around 50 houses in 2005.
As Susana from Nambia says, “I’ll go back to my village, light up my village and maintain the system. This will help my fellow villagers and give me great satisfaction.” A few doors away, packers are quietly packing the equipments that will be sent by ship to the villages of Susana and other trainees and will probably reach their villages even before they return.
Bharat Dogra
is a Delhi-based freelance journalist who writes on social concerns.