Rural Electrification in India- an introduction

Home to some of the world's largest and most vibrant cities where new companies form every week and help pull millions of people out of poverty, India is becoming a leading economic power in the world. Everyday India's mega-cities swell with new migrants from rural areas who come seeking a better life than that which they left behind. Cities like Mumbai, Bangalore and Calcutta are now home to skyscrapers, and immense wealth and power. But outside of these cities, millions of Indians are still mired in energy poverty and are without access to reliable electricity.

Over half of rural households in India are without electricity (RGGVY Brochure). Those without electricity rely on inefficient solid fuel stoves for light and heat thereby exposing themselves to fine particulate matter which can result in severe health problems. Villages without electricity are dangerous places at night as victims cannot see and then later identify their attackers. And the lack of regular and reliable access to electricity retards economic development in these poor regions. This energy and poverty gap in India leads to high rates of rural to urban migration and social instability as these mega-cities try to absorb more people.

All of these issues significantly deteriorate India's national and energy security situation, and the Indian national government, foreign governments and non-governmental organizations have taken note and have launched initiatives to try solve this problem of energy poverty.

The lack of electrification in rural India in itself is an energy security issue, and the projects and solutions proposed by a variety of organizations, if implemented, will change India's energy security situation, solving some problems and possibly causing new ones. This paper examines and critiques several of these organizations and their programs.

The Scope of The Problem

The vast majority of India's urban population is connected to the grid and although they experience frequent and enduring blackouts, they are still more energy rich than the 56% of rural households that do not have access to electricity (RGGVY Brochure). This 56% of Indian households without electricity represents the largest number of households without access to electricity in any one nation in the world (RGGVY Brochure). This disparity between populations with some access to the grid and those with absolutely no access is one of the main drivers in domestic migration. But this massive migration to these areas with an unreliable grid add more stress to that grid and make it significantly less reliable. Grid improvements can be made in these areas to increase reliability, but if the demand growth continues unabated due to population growth and upwards mobility, the grid will soon be overwhelmed again.

India is divided into 28 states and seven union territories (UT). Within these 35 areas there is a wide discrepancy of village and household electrification rates where several have reached full village electrification while others are significantly below 75%, see Table 1 (RGGVY Brochure).The five states that rank lowest in terms of both household and village electrification are Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh. These states are all in the northern and eastern parts of the nation, but the geography and climate of these regions varies significantly. Assam, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, while Jharkhand is mainly on the Chota Nagpur Plateau and Orissa is on the plateau and the coast of the Bay of Bengal. The differences between plains, plateaus and coastline are important to consider while planning rural electrification schemes in these states as the conditions affect the possibility of implementing certain power projects.

Village Electrification Rates	Number of States and UTs
100%	17
+95%	7
75%-95%	6
Under 75%	5
Household Electrification Rates	Number of States and UTs
+85%	7
85%-50%	16
50%-20%	7
Under 20%	5

These five states have fallen behind the rest of the pack for a variety of reasons. These reasons are important to examine and understand in order to analyze the potential effectiveness of a particular project that is slated to be implemented to address the rural electrification problem within any of these states. Without a basic grasp of the unique situations of the five states, rural electrification projects will be more likely to fail as they will not be appropriately designed to match up with the region.

Bibliography:

Rural Electrificaton Corporation Limited. Rajiv Gandhi Grameen

Vidyutikaran Yojana. Rural  Electrificaton Corporation Limited.

Apr. 2005. Web. 19 Nov. 2009.

<http://recindia.nic.in/download/rggvy_brochure.pdf>.

Comments

[Steve Smith]

As far as the structure of wood burning stoves is concerned, they normally take the form of rectangular or square metallic boxes or compartments with a solid door. Various types of materials are employed to construct these stoves, such as steel, cast iron, or other weighty materials. http://www.pgfireplaces.co.uk/stoves.htm