Title: STITCHES Location:
Global Categories: Technology Environment Education
Status:
In Progress
Timeline:
Ongoing
Description:
PROBLEM STATEMENT:\\r\\nToday India is the fourth largest contributor to green house emissions, yet if you walk on the streets of India you will notice very little or in fact no action being taken towards environment protection. A large segment (over 70%) of Indian population is rural. This section plays an important role in vote bank politics. As a result the government uses various strategies to appease this segment rather than benefitting them for real. The most damaging government incentive is subsidy on conventional energy and chemical fertiliser to farmers.\\r\\nEvery year nearly 3.5% of Indian GDP is spent on subsidy the result of which is negligence and low awareness of farmers, who continue to waste precious energy without realising the value of conservation. Un-thoughtful use of chemical fertiliser is damaging soil and dramatically decreasing productivity. As a result 70% of Indian population(farmers) contributes only 18% to overall national GDP. Filthy politics and unthoughful subsidy system is damaging both the environment and national efficiency but there is no substantial study/survey on the subsidy system which is the main culprit.\\r\\n\\r\\n PROPOSED SOLUTION:\\r\\n1. To conduct a survey of Indian farmers through a questionnaire and analyse the data to understand how subsidy on conventional energy and fertiliser is preventing farmers from thinking about renewable energy and organic farming. Besides how overdependence on government favours is making farmers highly unproductive. For example in the past 9 years nearly 150,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide because of depression under poverty and debt. This project will also give evidence and initiate a campaign to address this hidden issue which is never on government agenda.\\r\\n2. To build simple energy saving and organic farming methods and encouraging farmers to adopt those. This will involve analysis of specific rural regions, understanding their situation and developing simple affordable solutions to address energy and farming needs. Awareness campaigns will be important to inspire farmers.\\r\\n\\r\\nIMPACT AND INNOVATION:\\r\\nThis will certainly throw light on a hidden critical problem that is covered up by government. By getting international attention, many more heads can be got together to think about this issue. The biggest beneficiaries will be poor farmers. Innovation is the direct engagement of farmers’ community in the project to prove where problem exists.
Background:
We have already conducted several field visits and done surveys. We have also identified some inspiring villages where villagers are aware and are already using renewable energy alternatives. Some villages in the south are receiving support from the local governments as well and it is heart warming to see the team work and passion with which several school children are spreading awareness and using education as a tool for development. One of our products named tractor-factor which uses power from tractor batteries to light up CFLs has also been implemented in some of these villages- this is an efficient and cheap product that does not need any additional power to run. Spare power from tractor battery is sufficient.
Objectives:
1. To spread awareness on renewable and feasible energy technologies that can be easily made available in villages.
2. To help local innovators scale up/commercialize their innovative renewable energy products.
3. To involve rural women in the mass mobilization and make sure they spread the message to future generations.
4. To implement the use of simple biogas plants and solar lights in villages.
Milestones:
The following milestones have been achieved so far:
1. Implementation of tractor-factor in 30 homes so far. We have also made the gadget around 8% more efficient by introducing heat sinks.
2. Awareness and leadership workshops conducted in 8 villages.
3. 11 villagers have joined our team and are actively participating in the cause. Its a valuable result because its toughest to convince the rural people who are used to their conventional life-style and usually show inertia towards radical change.
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