Entrepreneurs Use Solar Power to Sew Masks and Provide Comfort

Recognizing that basic household economic calculations had changed and many could not afford their electrical bills, SPI established a voucher system to supplement energy costs for 30,000 households, or some 150,000 customers, at a cost of $250,000 over six months, and then created the systems for the vouchers to be both distributed and redeemed digitally.

SPI also set up an awareness campaign and arranged for the distribution of soaps and hand sanitizers as well as masks. Discovering a mask shortage, SPI introduced a program to help fund 25 entrepreneurs, all using electric sewing machines that the mini-grids helped power. SPI shared a how-to video and helped the seamstresses locate the needed supplies.

For Ruby, the work is intense, but also a relief. She lives with her 15-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son. Her husband, diagnosed with cancer last summer, passed away in June in the midst of the pandemic. She rarely leaves home. A nearby shopkeeper drops groceries at her door. Her bustling village falls eerily quiet each night about 7 p.m.

Ruby hired ten young women for her mask-making venture. Now she sews 50 masks a day with help from her daughter Shalini, and also cuts the cloth for her employees to sew. Each one returns 50 finished masks to her every two to three days. To handle her new business and household chores, she rises at 5 a.m. daily and works until about midnight.

Some aspects of SPI’s work have been set back by the pandemic. For instance, any energy outage or other problem is generally resolved within 60 to 100 minutes after it is reported. “Today because of the difficulty of movement, it’s going to be around 24 hours to resolve an incident,” Mitra says.

In addition, mini-grid expansion has been forced to halt. “We have 300 mini-grids on the ground, and by this time we would have added another 100 if the pandemic had not occurred,” he says.

But perhaps most of all during this pandemic, “we miss the face-to-face interaction,” Mitra says, “which is something we’ve been really good at. You actually learn a lot more about someone’s situation through their body language, their intonations, and obviously by visiting their homes and seeing their spaces. Over the phone, people often either exaggerate or downplay their problems.”

Even without that possibility for face-to-face interaction, SPI is working with its customers to make a difference. “Our program succeeds,” Mitra says, “because of our work on the ground—not only what we do, but how we do it.”