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ENERGIA News Issue 2.3, August 1998

Women's Participation in the Renewable Energy Movement

Lalitha Balakrishnan

Renewable energy development impinges on the lives of women, especially rural women in a big way. In the entire Asia-Pacific region, women are the end-users, collectors and managers of domestic fuel, especially biomass - which consists of crop residues, wood, twigs and leaves and cow-dung cakes. With the growing phenomena of deforestation and indiscriminate felling of trees and large-scale use of pesticides and insecticides, women at the grassroots level have great difficulties in providing food, water, fuel and fodder for the family. Many studies talk about the deforestation, ozone layer depletion, environment degradation and other harmful effects but fail to recognise the growing problems and untold miseries that poor rural women have to face in order to fulfil even the basic needs.

The Government of India realised the imperative need to tap renewable sources of energy. On the initiative of the late Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi on her return from the World Renewable Energy Conference at Nairobi in 1981, the Department of Non-conventional Energy Sources was created. By 1992 it was set up as a fully-fledged ministry of the Government of India (MNES).

Right from the beginning, MNES has been involving NGOs in the propagation of NRSE (new and renewable sources of energy) technologies. It was a good omen that AIWC (All India Women's Conference), one of the oldest pioneering women's organisations working towards the emancipation and empowerment of women, was identified in 1985 as a nodal agency to propagate improved stoves under a nationally funded programme. Realising the importance of the programme in improving the quality of life of rural women, AIWC created a separate Rural Energy Department on a permanent basis in 1985.

Ever since then, AIWC has been conducting demonstrations, training and extension, monitoring and user training with the help of AIWC branches and other partner organisations, both small NGOs at remote and hilly areas and national level organisations such as the Ramakrishna Mission. Women are directly affected by the rising cost of fuel, and rural women in particular have to suffer the hazardous impact of smoke on their health and their children's health. AIWC has therefore been conducting awareness and training programmes on biogas and solar cookers, solar water heaters and driers, solar chicken brooders, solar PV lanterns, stand above lighting systems etc. throughout the country. Since 1996 AIWC has also been made a Nodal Agency for the implementation of the National Project on Biogas Development.

While conducting these programmes, AIWC has learnt some useful lessons.

Wherever the women have been given pre-installation demonstrations and the necessary training in the usage, maintenance and even in construction the programmes have been successful and sustainable. A case in point is that of woodstoves where self-employed women are given a full ten-day hands-on training in science and the correct methods for stove construction.

AIWC has always striven hard to help as many small NGOs and their branches in remote areas as possible without compromising on quality. We started the national programme on biogas relying entirely for technical help on AFPRO (Action for Food Production). AIWC has been able to get good support from various AFPRO partners around the country since 1995 and around 2.500 biogas units have been constructed with their technical help. But realising the fact that it was not always possible to get a well-trained and gender-sensitive mason from these organisations when needed, AIWC is now in the process of setting up a small technical cell to meet this need.

In addition, realising the importance of energy conservation, AIWC has been conducting awareness programmes for women and rural people suggesting various ways of oil conservation as well as energy saving throughout the country. For this the AIWC branches and partner NGOs use many innovative methods such as folk media, songs and skits, demonstrations and site visits.

Both programmes consist of training of trainers, demonstrations, training of local women in their own villages, extension work and monitoring and feedback. Contrary to the general belief, AIWC's experience, since implementing the NPIC programme in 1984, has shown that the women beneficiaries and the self-employed workers (those trained to construct the mud stove in other houses) perceive the improved cook stove as a health programme first, then as a provider of self-confidence and added income, and also as a means of reducing drudgery and saving time as indicated in the chart below.

Another example worth mentioning is in the state of Andhra Pradesh. In a village Moinabad near the capital, the AIWC's partner organisation “Arthic” has been able to motivate poor rural women to adopt the use of biogas units in their one room tenements built under a Government housing programme. With only three animals they are able to do the entire cooking for a family with 7 to 8 members on a biogas stove, including rotis (Indian Bread), rice and vegetables. The women proudly show off their sparkling kitchens, biogas units, soak pits, and the little kitchen gardens where they use the biogas slurry. All of these have been constructed by the women themselves with the help of the NGO. Another point worth mentioning is that these women have formed themselves into small self-help groups and taken soft loans from another Government of India scheme “Rashtriya Mahila Kosh” for meeting their share of the expenses associated with biogas construction, and they have nearly paid off their loans. Their entire life style and health have improved and they are now engaging themselves in other income generation activities.

National and International Collaboration

As a women's organisation, AIWC has continuously played a role as a catalyst and a nodal agency in the propagation of various NRSE technologies. This has been achieved through presenting papers, organising exhibitions and demonstrations at all the important regional, national and international level workshops, seminars and UN conferences. This helps us to exchange good practices, transfer technologies and get help in training. AIWC conducted a mass awareness programme on sustainable energy during the UN World Women's Conference at Beijing in addition to setting up exhibitions and conducting workshops on women and NRSE.

Empowerment of Women through NRSE

It has been established that NRSE could be a tool in the empowerment of women. AIWC's experience, gained over a decade, indicates that though there is a resistance to total change, in the course of time, by appropriate interventions and training, more women could be encouraged to adopt the use of NRSE devices. This is all the more imperative today with the escalating cost of fuel and its growing scarcity.

There have been small success stories, but the continued acceptance of the schemes will depend upon the strength of the linkages between the processes of innovation, production, training and marketing. It has been proved that NRSE programmes could be effectively dovetailed into the existing women's programmes such as “Rashtriya Mahila Kosh” - the small credit and programme. However, it is the lack of facilities for maintenance and repair of the NRSE devices at the rural level that is the biggest problem faced by the NGOs. To overcome this, AIWC is trying to create a whole cadre of women and youth - “barefoot technicians” who will be able to install, maintain, service and repair the devices at the village level itself.

Industrial frameworks are necessary to help small women's enterprises in the field of renewables, particularly in the rural areas, and perhaps it is worthwhile to examine if some of these can become parts of a larger network. For example, in the Midnapore district of West Bengal the rural women themselves manufacture the pans used in the toilets attached to biogas units. The AIWC branch in Guntur - “Mahila Samajam” manufactures thousands of the pottery linings used in the improved chulhas through a tie-up with the local potter. This has resulted in self-employed women getting better wages for the construction of improved stoves in the houses of beneficiaries since, with the linings, they can easily construct three stoves per day. It has also resulted in a substantial rise in the income of the rural potter who has diversified his operations.

Another area to be addressed is technology development, in which local women should be encouraged to use their inherent knowledge of nature, and management expertise in species and seed selection for fuel fodder plantations, nursery raising and tending of plants, and to take advantage of their own abilities and participate in gender-specific applications.

Though there are a large number of schemes, both at the national and state levels, specially geared towards women, for a variety of reasons women are not participating fully in them. The recent trend towards a concentration on large projects such as wind energy, co-generation and large scale solar power projects, with a growing neglect of small projects such as solar cookers and improved stoves is a cause for worry.

Today in India the Panchayati Raj institutions (village councils) are obliged to have a 30% quota of women. AIWC is capitalising on this by targeting these institutions with information about the use of various NRSE technologies. These are vital not only to remove the drudgery from women's lives and save them from smoke related diseases but also as a route to starting small rural enterprises. The AIWC branches are in the process or organising Panchayati Raj training sessions throughout the country incorporating the NRSE programmes and small credit and thrift programmes for women. With more interventions like these, women could play a more prominent role in the development of NRSE, not only empowering themselves but also making a major contribution towards energy self-sufficiency.

For more information, please contact:
Ms. Lalitha Balakrishnan, All India Women's Conference (AIWC), Sarojini House, 6 Bhagwan Dass Road, New Delhi 110001, India; Tel. +91.11.3389680/3381165, Fax +91.11.3384092