ENERGY EMPOWERS FEMALE CHANGE-MAKERS By Jaideep Mukherji, CEO, Smart Power India

The global energy transition offers a great opportunity to transform the energy sector in all aspects. The transition towards a renewable, distributed, decarbonized energy system is creating an array of social and economic benefits, including growing employment. An industry report estimates that the number of jobs in the sector could go up from 10.3 million in 2017 to nearly 29 million in 2050. What will be paramount during this transition would be to ensure that the opportunities it creates are equally accessible and distributed among men and women, factoring in their contributions, skills, and views.

While women can garner a growing share of expanding employment in this young and dynamic sector they frequently face the double burden of balancing work and family. Mobility requirements and difficult work schedules are demanding for women, and most women, in general, face a regular overlap due to gender responsibilities in their professional and personal life. This situation worsened in the last two years during the COVID-19 pandemic when around 97 percent of women micro-entrepreneurs experienced an increase in the number of hours they spent on household and family responsibilities and about 65 percent of women micro-entrepreneurs were dependent on their family members to make business decisions on their behalf.

At this juncture, access to reliable electricity and the consequent time savings enable women to avail of opportunities for skill-training, which can help them to earn an income as an employee or even start their own business.

Over the past decade, there have been dramatic, positive results in women’s productivity at work owing to reliable access. Access to reliable energy is one of the core objectives at SPI, a subsidiary of Rockefeller Foundation. The organization is facilitating and empowering rural women to utilize renewable energy to their benefit.

For instance, in the rice belt of Jharkhand, India, the estimated output of women hulling the paddy with an electric huller increased from 20kg to 150 kg in just 4 to 5 hours which shows how time and energy-intensive such a manual task is for women. With better results accrued through a motorized huller, those women were able to engage in recreational activities, which also amounted to better health outcomes.

In another case, people in rural Odisha did not have proper livelihoods due to an erratic electricity supply. Their daily activities were also at the mercy of the limited power available. As the state-owned power distribution companies (DISCOMS) were laggard, villagers would often receive bills with errors, and inefficient customer services paid little heed to their complaints. This resulted in poor service in most villages of the state.

However, power systems have become more stable since the last few months, thanks to over 120 women, better known as bijulee didis in the village, who are at the forefront, delivering last mile electricity connectivity.

Bijulee didis play a key role in implementing Smart Power India’s vision of bringing electricity to underserved rural areas in India. The team of bijulee didis have not only reduced losses but also clocked an incremental revenue of Rs 7 crore. Each bijulee didi serves around 600 to 800 customers for nearly five hours every day. This includes collecting bill payments and taking charge of customer care at gathering spots such as village chowk, local mandir, gram panchayat offices, and mandis.

This has led to 5,000 customers receiving monthly bills regularly and an additional 8,000 customers started paying their bills on time. Over 1,250 households and 300 enterprises were onboarded and connected to the solar grid. Based on safety data available on the government’s contact tracing app Aarogya Setu, bijulee didis are now calling customers to a particular location and completing as much bill collection work as possible.

An inter-state comparison showed that states such as Odisha — with better service parameters like longer supply hours, better metre coverage, and regular billing — have a higher share of satisfied customers. In fact, they are also educating and sensitising customers regarding necessary precautions to prevent being infected by the coronavirus.

Besides practising safety measures like using hand sanitizers, face shields, and masks, they are also provided with face shields with a QR code to download online payment app for DISCOMs and the Aarogya Setu app so that people can stay informed about COVID-19 cases in their neighbourhood. Notably, government departments are also leveraging the network of bijulee didis to distribute food to migrant workers and the homeless during the pandemic.

To conclude, deployment of renewable energy can alleviate poverty, create jobs, improve welfare and also strengthen gender equality, overall improving the socio-economic development of the community. To completely explore the potential of renewables, the industry needs to tap a wider pool of talent – especially that of women, who have been mainly deprived of the energy transition in critical capacities. The renewable energy industry needs to engage and retain more women – and promote them – to fill the growing needs for skills.