By Pritha Kejriwal
    NDTV.com

    Friday 10 February 2006

    Kakdwip, West Bengal - In the remote reaches of the Sunderbans in Bengal, where rural electrification is still a distant dream, six women are ushering in a dual revolution.

    They are harnessing solar power to bring light into the lives of fellow villagers and in the process empowering themselves like never before.

    The women are innovators and inventors of solar powered torches and night-lights that have become must-haves in the villages of the Sunderbans where there is no electricity.

    Learning the Ropes

    "We are very happy because earlier we were mere housewives. Now we work for two to three days a week and assemble night bulbs, etc."

    "We have also learnt to market and sell these products to the people," said Sumana Satra, a villager.

    "We are not spending any money right now. We are trying to accumulate so we can reinvest in the same business," said Nilima Maity, another villager.

    Sumana, Nilima and four others, who never finished school, are part of a project by The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi and the Ram Krishna Mission.

    The project was launched last January to help disadvantaged rural women help themselves.

    Trained in managing solar power units and given 30 solar lanterns to start a rental business, one year on, the women have come a long way.

    Entrepreneurial Skill

    "Each one of them has a certain entrepreneurial skill, and when the opportunity came to them they wanted to use that time doing something useful and which would also give them some money."

    "They have also entered into a market which has always been a male domain," said Aakanksha Choubey, TERI Project leader.

    In the past, the villagers of Bhavnagar and Gobindapur were forced to call it a day at dusk. But the six women who harness the sun have changed that for good.

    Solar power for them has brought light at the end of the tunnel in more ways than one.