Project Summary

Lighting Najafgar Bhoshal Vipauji is a rural electrification initiative aimed at bringing a dependable nighttime lighting service to 100 households  in Najafgar Bhoshal Vipauji (NBV). NBV is a poor village in India virtually neglected from electricity supply by the government and avoided by capable for-profit organizations because of its low population and income. This neglect has led to increased vulnerability of NBV natives to acute health risks, reduced productive hours, increased related security issues (some of which have resulted in death) and a continuation of the poverty cycle. Our solution is to install a solar panel system to generate and distribute electricity to the 100 households.

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Why Light NBV

A poor village  with 100 households, Najafgar Bhoshal Vipauji (NBV) is located in Uttar Pradesh, which is the most populated state in India with over 250 million people. The village constitutes a part of the approximately 44% of all households without electricity in rural India. Its' natives use locally crafted kerosene lanterns, which emits tons of poisonous soot, as an alternative lighting means. The school children make use of these lanterns at night to study and do home work, and use the daylight to learn during the day at school. Due to constant soot inhalation and fire outbreaks from tipped over lanterns, incidences of deaths are more pronounced in NBV, accounting for a huge part of the annual state average of 30,000 deaths. There are no nearby clinics, as they are all located several miles away on account of electricity, compounding the people’s vulnerability to health risks. NBV residents are officially classified under the poverty line by the government of India living on less than $7 (Rs. 327) per month per capita and have kerosene as the second demand for income after food. The government allocates food grains and subsidized kerosene per month to NBV but neither allocation is sufficient—the three liters of subsidized kerosene households receive is barely enough to fuel one lantern for 3 hours a day or two lanterns for less than 2 hours. Presently this village cannot afford the solar panel hub.   Without electricity, the village lacks the necessary infrastructure to reduce its own poverty through economic development. With the installation of electricity, the poverty circle will be broken. To combat its poverty therefore, our approach is to institute a solar panel hub that would generate and distribute power to the approximately 100 household of NBV, Uttar Pradesh, India. 

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