‘MILLION SOULS’ PROGRAMME
The Programme was launched in four States namely Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa and Maharashtra in mid of ‘2014’ to provide Solar lamps to the students from class 5th to class 12th so as to enable them to continue their studies during the rapid and long shut out in the State electricity supply pertaining to these remote rural areas of such States and therefore contribute towards their ‘Right to Education’. These lamps are distributed at a subsidized cost of Rs. 120/- each, whereas the actual cost of the same is Rs. 500/-. The rest of the cost was borne by different funding agencies, Rs 180/- by the National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF), MNRE and Rs 200 by various philanthropic organisations as part of CSR; mainly Tata Trusts and by the state governments. It is observed that besides helping the students in their studies, these lamps are also being used for fulfilling the need of providing the light in the respective houses of stakeholders and thereby awareness towards the use of ‘non-conventional energy’ is also being generated in these areas.
Recognizing the noble cause of the Programme the CARD (Centre for Advance Research and Development) joined hands with Indian Institute Of Technology, Bombay to be a part in executing the Programme in Eastern and Western part of M.P. The blocks allotted to CARD were Sardarpur, Nalchha, Tirla and Dhār of Dhār district and Petlawad in Jhabua district in the Western Region and Mandla, Bichhia and Ghughri Blocks of Mandla district in the Eastern Region. CARD contributed in the distribution of 75,754 Lamps in the Western Region and 45,500 Lamps in the Eastern Region thus making a total contribution of 1,21,254 lamps out of one Million project target at National level; i.e. 12 percent. CARD has now been engaged in the repairing & maintenance of such lamps so as to cover the warranty period of one year for developing the ‘confidence building’ in such areas towards this highly beneficial ‘Non-Conventional Energy ‘device. The process is being executed through a team of SRC Managers (Soul Repair Center) in all the allotted Blocks. We look forward to promote this initiative further in the remaining backward blocks.