Women led decentralised renewable energy India
Kartavya Desk Staff
Source: TH
Subject: Renewable Energy
Context: The India Distributed Renewable Energy Summit (IDRES) 2026 recently highlighted women-led decentralised renewable energy (DRE) as a strategic pillar for India’s net-zero transition.
• Concurrently, Chhattisgarh launched “Anjor Vision 2047,” aiming to establish 5,000 women-led DRE solutions and create 50,000 green jobs by 2030.
About Women led decentralised renewable energy India:
What it is?
• Women-led DRE is a transformative model that moves rural women from being passive last-mile consumers to active designers, owners, and operators of small-scale energy systems (like solar pumps, mini-grids, and solar dryers).
• It integrates energy access with gender equity, ensuring that clean energy infrastructure is managed by local women collectives, such as Self-Help Groups (SHGs), to power both domestic needs and rural livelihoods.
Key Data and Facts:
• Representation Gap: Women currently represent only 11% of India’s renewable energy workforce, compared to a 32% global average.
• Income Impact: 90% of women using DRE solutions report an income increase, with average earnings rising by one-third within a year.
• Health Crisis: Indoor air pollution from traditional biomass causes approximately 2,00,000 premature deaths annually in India, primarily among women.
• Economic Potential: Empowering women in the energy sector could add $2.9 trillion to India’s economy by 2025-26.
• Scale of Impact: Technologies like solar silk-reeling have helped women increase monthly incomes from ₹1,500 to ₹6,000.
Needs for Women-Led DRE:
• Bridging the Reliability Deficit: While grid connectivity is high, rural consistency is low; DRE provides the reliable quality power needed for essential services.
E.g. In rural Chhattisgarh, forest-fringe villages use DRE to power health centers, ensuring refrigeration for life-saving vaccines during grid outages.
• Mitigating Time Poverty: Women spend 3–4 hours daily collecting fuelwood; DRE automates drudgerous tasks, freeing time for education or rest.
E.g. In Odisha, solar-powered silk-reeling machines have replaced manual thigh-reeling, saving hours of physical labor for tribal women weavers.
• Enhancing Rural Safety: Lack of reliable lighting restricts women’s mobility and safety after dark.
E.g. Solar-powered streetlights in Uttar Pradesh villages have reportedly increased women’s participation in evening community meetings and SHG activities.
• Productive Use of Energy (PURE): Affordable energy is required to mechanize small-scale rural enterprises to make them competitive.
E.g. Women-run dairies in Rajasthan use solar-powered bulk milk chillers to prevent spoilage, allowing them to sell to larger markets.
• Climate Resilience: Centralized grids are vulnerable to extreme weather; decentralized systems managed by locals ensure community resilience.
E.g. During the recent cyclones in coastal Andhra Pradesh, solar-powered micro-grids managed by women’s groups remained the only source of power for mobile charging and emergency lights.
Initiatives Taken So Far:
• PM Surya Ghar (Solar Villages): Aims to establish 10,000 solar villages by 2030 with a focus on community and women-led management.
• Lakhpati Didi Scheme: Targets creating 3 crore Lakhpati Didis by integrating DRE technologies into SHG-led businesses like food processing and textiles.
• Anjor Vision 2047 (Chhattisgarh): A dedicated state roadmap to increase RE share to 66% through women-led green jobs and Solar Didis.
• Solar Urja Lamp (SoUL) Project: An IIT Bombay-led initiative that trained rural women (specifically in Bihar) to assemble and maintain solar lamps.
Key Challenges Associated:
• High Upfront Costs: DRE appliances like solar refrigerators or solar pumps require significant initial capital that rural women lack.
E.g. A solar bulk milk chiller can cost up to ₹25 lakh, a prohibitive sum for a typical village SHG without low-interest green credit.
• Technical Skill Gap: There is a shortage of local women technicians (Oorja Sakhis) to handle maintenance and repairs.
E.g. In many remote districts of Jharkhand, solar installations often lie defunct for months because the nearest technician is a man located in a distant city.
• Deep-Seated Patriarchy: Traditional gender roles often exclude women from technical decision-making or asset ownership.
E.g. Agriculture Census data shows women own only 13.9% of land in India, making it difficult for them to secure bank loans for energy assets like solar pumps.
• Limited Market Awareness: Many rural entrepreneurs are unaware of the profit potential or existence of DRE livelihood technologies.
E.g. Small-scale fruit processors in Himachal Pradesh often continue using expensive diesel generators because they lack information on solar-dryer subsidies.
• Service Infrastructure Deficit: Post-sale service and spare parts for DRE machines are rarely available at the village level.
E.g. In Western Odisha, seasonal demand for solar irrigation is high, but system downtime during peak harvest persists due to a lack of local spare-part depots.
Way Ahead:
• Asset Ownership: Policies should mandate women as primary or joint owners of energy assets, similar to the Ujjwala Yojana model.
• Green Credit Access: Launch dedicated credit lines and First Loss Default Guarantees (FLDG) for women-led clean-tech enterprises.
• Solar Didis: Scale up vocational training for women in STEM and technical roles to create a local cadre of maintenance sakhis.
• Panchayat Integration: Empower Gram Panchayats to use Own Source Revenue to partner with women’s collectives for Energy-as-a-Service.
• Mainstreaming DRE: Integrate DRE technologies into existing flagship schemes like the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM).
Conclusion:
India’s energy transition will only be truly just when the women at the last mile transition from being beneficiaries to being leaders of the system. By scaling women-led DRE, India can simultaneously address energy poverty, climate targets, and gender inequality. Turning the last mile into the front line of progress is the fastest way to a Viksit Bharat.
Q. “The integration of smart grids and renewable energy sources is crucial for India’s energy transition”. Examine the challenges in implementing smart grids in India and suggest policy measures to overcome them. (15 M)