How solar-powered solutions are sparking a revolution in Pali

“All the women united… invoking the rights granted to them by the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, 1996, which recognises non-timber forest products as the property of the tribal families,” Karami Bai, Board Member of the Ghummar Mahila Producer Company Ltd.

Pali, a district in Southern Rajasthan, embodies a climate defined by hot and dry conditions, where the sun casts its relentless gaze upon the terrain below. Date palm trees sway gracefully in the warm breeze, while textured rocks and distant hills provide an ancient foundation for the undulating landscape. Here, amidst the semi-arid expanse, where the weather holds court with unyielding power, reside tribal, forest-dwelling communities, such as the Bhil and the Garasiyas. Their deep connections with the forest, coupled with an inhospitable environment for agriculture, led to a reliance on non-timber forest produce (NTFP) like sitafal, ber, palash, and tendu leaves to generate an income; however, a lack of sustainable, efficient value chains and market linkages for these NTFPs and their value-added products was stifling economic growth in the region.

Traditionally, NTFP collection in the region has been undertaken by women; however, with an increasing number of men migrating out of their villages to find other sources of income, women have also taken up key responsibilities as cultivators. The increased burden of such activities, in addition to women’s pre-existing household responsibilities, led to deleterious effects on women’s health, mobility, and independence; widespread domestic violence and alcoholism exacerbated their plight.

On a field visit to Rajasthan last month, aimed at strengthening our ties with partners we are featuring on the upcoming Climate Solutions Platform, we met the very same Garasiya women who are now using solar energy to revolutionise the local NTFP ecosystem, and the team at SRIJAN (Self-Reliant Initiatives through Joint Action), a local non-profit working to enable them.

Since 2009, SRIJAN has not only supported the creation of women-led Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in 56 villages, but also worked towards building livelihood opportunities for the local women, by enabling them to collect, store, add value to, and sell NTFPs in their vicinities. Through these SHGs, over 4000 women have been mobilised, with the SHGs providing opportunities for social, economic, and financial support in the community. Additionally, SRIJAN has helped establish a farmer producer organisation (FPO) with local women as shareholders, called the Ghummar Mahila Producer Company Limited (GMPCL). We learned about this journey from the women involved, particularly from one of the Board Members of GMPCL — with a loud, gravelly voice and an easy smile, she was the centre of attention during our visit to Pali. Dressed ornately, glittering in the late morning light, she had plastic flowers sown to her clothes and her name stitched onto the sleeve of her blouse — Karami Bai.

Karami Bai is a force to be reckoned with; a wellspring of confidence that is infectious to all the women around her. She told us about the days before SRIJAN began their work with the community; when women lived behind their veil, or ghoonghat, with their movement and decision-making restricted by their husbands. Many women in the community used to attend meetings in secret, fearing the repercussions of their husbands discovering where they were; but access to livelihoods and finance caused a sea change in the social dynamics of the community.

How did SRIJAN enable this? By giving women the opportunity to access finance and community through the SHGs and creating sustainable livelihood streams through GMPCL. SRIJAN provided processing and cooling equipment such as pulping machines, hardeners, and freezers to the women, at a Central Processing Unit (CPU) in Bhimana village, so they could not only store the NTFPs, but also add value to their produce. They also helped create market linkages for GMPCL to sell the NTFPs and value-added products to buyers in Kota, Udaipur, and Jodhpur.

Subsequently, decentralised village-level collection centres were set up in 10 villages in the district, easing mobility constraints for women. The women were provided with a van with a deep freezer that runs on solar power, to help transport produce from the collection centres to the CPU. Drawing on community contributions, collection centres and CPUs were retrofitted to run on solar power. Over time, GMPCL emerged as a sustainable entity, and now receives orders from Rajasthan and Gujarat, has a sizeable turnover and profits, and has unequivocally instilled a sense of agency, resilience, and pride within the communities.

Major support for this work came from HDFC Bank’s flagship CSR program, HDFC Parivartan. The focus of this particular program, called ‘Adivasi Samriddhi Pariyojna’, was to enhance the prosperity of tribal communities in the region through the holistic development of agriculture, value chains, and market access. Over the course of three years (2020–2023), HDFC supported SRIJAN to create decentralised value chains, establish renewable energy-based solutions, promote climate resilient practices, and enhance primary healthcare and hygiene.

From a climate perspective, a key impact of this project is the use of solar energy. Decentralised renewable energy (DRE) has the potential to power rural livelihoods and economies without adding emissions to the atmosphere; effectively decoupling emissions from economic growth. However, for the women of Pali, the use of clean energy also generates wider socioeconomic benefits. Solar energy provides a low-cost (as versus diesel) and reliable source of electricity, RE-powered cold storages reduce the produce losses women face due to spoilage, and machinery reduces their drudgery and helps package their products efficiently. RE-powered village-level collection centres also enable women to work close to their homes and save transport fare. Across the board, communities have been able to cut costs and generate value through the choice to depend on solar instead of traditional energy sources. And this economic buffer is critical from a climate perspective — because it gives communities the flexibility to adapt or respond to climate shocks.

Clean energy has created the possibility for women to run profitable businesses in a region where intermittency was a challenge; and the combination of energy, finance, and entrepreneurship has accelerated their ability to influence change within their families and communities. One woman told us how she used the money she earned to obtain the necessary documents needed for her land; another, fuelled by her own lack of access to schooling, was able to fund her children’s education. It led to the development of leadership; when the vaccines to COVID-19 came out, greeted by resistance and hesitation across rural and tribal areas of the country, Karami Bai was one of the first in her community to take it. The CPU was repurposed into a vaccination centre, the women spread information and trust amongst their peers, and vaccination rates skyrocketed in the area.

In addition, SRIJAN enables Adivasi communities to increase their incomes without needing to migrate or leave behind their traditional lifestyles. Globally, indigenous communities manage or occupy a quarter of the world’s land — home to 80% of the world’s biodiversity, so enabling them to stay near their land is critical to preserving forests and natural carbon sinks.

As Karami Bai’s story keenly illustrates, climate projects intersect deeply with development concerns in India. Her experiences and SRIJAN’s efforts in Pali provide crucial guiding principles for effective and inclusive climate solutions across India that enable sustainable development and community empowerment. For example:

• Facilitating access to finance to unlock women’s potential, whether within the community through inter-lending, or through the banking system. This enabled the women in Pali to invest in their families’ businesses, expand their operations, and create a ripple effect of economic growth, dismantling financial barriers.
• Establishing and strengthening independent, community-owned and -led institutions to act as vehicles for participatory development, and foster self-sufficiency among the communities at large, and women, in particular.
• Harnessing renewable energy, such as solar power, to drive the development of rural economies and generate employment opportunities. These clean energy initiatives not only provided a sustainable solution for meeting energy needs, but also facilitated the establishment of businesses and creation of livelihoods, while mitigating the impacts of climate change.
• Encouraging sustainable and responsible management of natural resources, through collaborative efforts, to strike a balance between socio-economic development and environmental stewardship.

RIJAN is one of several non-profits that are implementing inclusive climate solutions across the country, and reimagining development in the process; their efforts need more visibility and capital to be brought to scale. The goal of the ICC’s upcoming Climate Solutions Platform (CSP) is to curate high-impact climate solutions in the development sector — a pathway to protect ourselves against accelerating risks and enabling larger social change through novel technologies and livelihoods. Robust climate projects need to take on multiple lenses to ensure their effectiveness; but clearly also have ripple effects on other areas like women’s agency, healthcare, and poverty. The CSP is our way to illustrate how we can begin to solve the climate problem; and the solutions being painted by our network of incredible partners — of which SRIJAN is one — will be on display this July.

If you are interested in supporting the work featured in this article, you can reach out to [email protected] and we will connect you with the team at SRIJAN.

Photo credits: The Form Co .