Jyoti

Sharmila Joshi

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“This patra
is very useful. Our pada [hamlet] is
still in darkness. So I am marching today. Give us light at least now,” said Mangal
Ghadge, 47, balancing a tablet-size solar plate on her head, at the farmers’
rally in Nashik on February 20-21, “Sunlight directly falls on the patra [metal] and collects the heat. We use it
in the evening to charge mobile phone or torches. It has given us some relief.”


Like Mangal (in the cover photo on top), many of her neighbours use solar plates
in their hamlet  of 40 households, around
half a kilometre from Shindwad village of Dindori taluka in Nashik district.  All the inhabitants of this pada
belong to the Mahadev Koli community – a Scheduled Tribe. Most of them cultivate
paddy, ragi
and tur
 on forest land. The poor rain in 2018 has
meant that they have all lost their crops or got very low yields. 

Mangal bought the solar plate a year ago. “Someone
in my pada bought a patra.
And I asked him to get one for me too. Then many others also started buying
this. It costs Rs. 250 rupees – one day’s wage for people like us,” she said.

Mangal has a rechargeable lamp at home, which her son, now in Class 10, uses to study at night. “With this patra he can at least study. That’s at least some hope in this darkness,” she says with a smile. Many others at the farmers’ rally carried
similar solar plates or panels on their heads or in their hands. Among them
were Pawan Sonu, 28 and Janu Tokre, 30, from Payarpada, a village of 108
households (Census 2011). They too spoke of water shortages and crop failures. “Our 12 huts are at the outskirts of the village. The main village has light. We don’t. How will our children study in the dark?” asked Pawan. “We get two litres of kerosene a month on ration. How much do we use for cooking and how much to light lamps? The government is neither giving us rights over our land nor providing basic facilities. Why should we have to make our own arrangements by buying such things [solar plates] with what little we earn?”

Adding 'power' to the protest

ಕತ್ತಲೆ ನಾಡಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರತಿಭಟನೆಯ ಕಿಡಿ

போராட்டத்திற்கு ‘சக்தியை’ கூட்டுதல்

आंदोलनातली ‘ऊर्जा’

ବିକ୍ଷୋଭରେ ‘ଶକ୍ତି’ର ସଂଯୋଗ

احتجاج میں ’پاور‘ جوڑنا

विरोध में ‘पॉवर’ जोड़ना

বিদ্যুতের দাবিতে ‘ফুল চার্জে’ প্রতিবাদ

Nashik

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Adding 'power' to the protest

Adivasi farmers at the rally in Nashik on February 20-21 were carrying portable solar plates which recharge their phones and torches. Electricity in their hamlets was was one of their demands

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