Impact
Lighting up lives From darkness to dawn
The Shanarpatti federation in Dindigul district took a lot of efforts for getting electricity connections for the members of their self help group who did have access to it earlier. It has transformed the quality of life of the families of the members who have benefited from it. In this federation 323 electricity connections were provided to members in over 45 villages.
How they did it
In order to have an understanding about the ground realities the federation undertook a survey among members to assess the number of non electrified homes. According to results of the survey, nearly 400 members did not have this facility. The primary reasons were lack of affordability for the families to invest on materials and meet the costs involved in erecting electric poles through the Electricity Board. Apart from this getting the connection for houses without proper walling, land that do not have legal deeds were the other constraints for the families.
Normally, the cost of getting the connection will be around Rs. 6,000 for individuals who take up the process by themselves. However, the cost would increase up to Rs. 10,000 in case of remote villages primarily due to the cost involved in erecting poles till their end. The federation decided to address this specific need of its members.
This intervention envisaged collective approach by members in addition to provision of loan to individual members by the respective groups. Members who did not have electricity in their houses were organised in to exclusive committees. These committees coordinated the electrification activities such as approaching electricity board, bulk purchase of electrical items, fixing up contractor to do wiring works in houses etc.
The members were provided with loan support up to Rs. 5,000 based on need. The interest rate for these loans was fixed at 12 to 18 per cent which varied based on decision made by the respective groups. However, it was seen that the interest rates are kept at minimum since the loan will not directly yield income. Providing electricity connection were done in bulk at the village or cluster level, which in turn considerably reduced the cost involved in purchase of materials, erection of poles and transportation & other processing activities.
The committee members negotiated with the electrical shops to reduce the price and ensure the quality. Wiring works for individual houses were done collectively by hiring an electrician at village or cluster level. For households which had inadequate walling, the respective groups extended loan facilities to improve the condition of walls so that they become eligible for getting electricity connection. The federation supported the households for getting support evidence from concerned government departments showing that they own the property in order to avail this facility.
Initially the federation found it very difficult to convince the officials of the electricity board. The people made continuous efforts for at least four months to get the support of the government officials. Due to this collective action and positive response from the higher officials, the member could save about Rs.1,000 per connection. In few cases the savings was around Rs. 3,000 per connection.
More importantly it has enhanced the quality of life of the members significantly in terms of children’s education and reducing the drudgery of women. This product based lending has considerably increased the loan portfolio of the federation; Rs. 15.50 lakh was disbursed for providing electricity connection. This experience is providing an inspiration and demonstration to other federations to take up similar initiatives that can benefit and touch the lives of their members directly in a significant manner with the collective action by the community with the facilitation by the federation.
I am J Mary, member of Susaiyappar Kalanjiam in Shanarpatti federation. I live with my husband and two school going children. We are agricultural coolies struggling hard to manage day-to-day household needs with the meagre and irregular income. We have been residing in a small hut for years together. We always had a dream of having a safe and convenient house. But it continued to be a dream for a very long period.
We could not afford to get electricity connection for our house. The deposit amount, which has to be paid to the Electricity Office, was beyond our capacity. We approached our relatives, friends and even local moneylenders to borrow this amount. But none of them lent to us.
The hours after the sunset will be terrible for us. We had to do everything in the night only with the support of a kerosene lamp. Besides providing very little light it was quite unsafe. Twice our house was about to get ablaze due to this lamp. In the dark, many times our family members suffered from insect bites including a scorpion due to insufficient light. I had wept in silence for many days seeing my children study under the light of street lamps.
When I joined Kalanjiam in the year 2004, I did not imagine that my children would be able to study under bright lights in our house. Since beginning, I have been very regular in attending group meetings, saving and repaying the loans. I heaved a sigh of relief when our federation came forward to support in getting electricity connection. I approached my group to get the loan. After appraising my performance, the group members provided me Rs. 5,000 as loan at 12% p a.
In our village, 14 other Kalanjiam members also got the electricity loan from Kalanjiam. We all 15 of these members formed a committee and collectively did works like purchase of materials, approaching electricity office etc. We commonly appointed an electrician from our village. Altogether, I spent Rs. 5,500 for getting the connection. One of our relatives who is not a Kalanjiam member, residing in a nearby village said that she had spent around Rs. 8,000 for getting the connection. Thanks to Kalanjiam I have been able to save a considerable amount. But for the support rendered by my Kalanjiam our house would always been in dark.
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