How young women in a Jharkhand village became experts in solar technology

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the village of Dantoo, in Jharkhand’s Kasara block, faced a problem common to thousands of villages across the country. Students of the village’s government high school were restricted to their homes and had to use digital devices for hours at a stretch to attend online classes – but because the village receives erratic power supply, the devices would frequently run out of charge.

The poor electricity supply was not unusual – though the district houses four thermal power plants, households in Kasara block, which is in Bokaro district, have long seen several power cuts in a day. “It is normal to have five to six hours of power cuts in a day,” said Pramila Devi, a resident of Dantoo. “The number of hours was even higher a few years ago.”

But the students of Dantoo arrived at a solution to the problem – they made solar power banks that they could charge and use to power their devices. They were helped in this endeavour by a teacher named Animesh Chandra, who trains them in working with hardware and electronics as part of a government programme that imparts vocational skills in schools to help make students employable. The Indian government has run the programme under the umbrella of the Samagra Shiksha education scheme since 2018.

Chandra began this work in Dantoo in 2020. In the past five years, several batches of students have trained under him, with girls outnumbering boys. In October, his young women students in turn imparted training to 30 village women, expanding the circle of solar technologists.

A variety of devices

As part of his course, Chandra taught his students a variety of technical skills including installing and maintaining solar equipment, and assembling and repairing LED bulbs.

Using these skills, the students have over the years made and maintained a range of equipment and devices, including solar lights, LED bulbs, power banks, emergency lights, loudspeakers and, as a combined class project, a solar tree, a tree-like structure consisting of several solar cells. Since 2021, Chandra told Scroll, the students have repaired more than 10,000 LED bulbs and manufactured more than 20,000 LED bulbs and 1,500 solar powered bulbs.

“We had some 40-50 faulty solar lamps lying in the school, so when Animesh sir asked if he could use them in his class I immediately agreed,” said Vasudev Kumar, the headmaster of the school. “Many teachers stick to books, but he makes sure the kids work with their own hands.”

The students’ efforts are not only an experiment in meeting the village’s energy needs – they also represent a small step towards reducing its dependence on coal.

This gains significance in the broader context of the country’s goals towards this end. As part of this effort, in 2022, the state government constituted a Just Transition Task Force, whose aim was to make recommendations towards reducing the state’s energy sector’s dependence on carbon-based fuels.

“What we're witnessing in Dantoo village is a powerful demonstration of how youth-led innovation can catalyse India's energy transition from the ground up,” said policy scholar Mani Bhushan Jha, from the Centre for Sustainable Transition and Resilience. “The fact that this is happening in coal-rich Bokaro is very significant. It tells us that communities in India's energy heartland are not only ready but eager to embrace clean energy solutions.”

But in Bokaro, like in many parts of the country these efforts are still only in their initial stages.

Driving down the main road of Kasara block in Bokaro district of Jharkhand, one can see piles of coal stored outside rural houses used for cooking and other heating purposes. The abundance of coal is unsurprising as the area, around two hours from the state capital of Ranchi, falls under Koylanchal – the local name denoting the coal rich belt of the state.

Not just the classroom

The benefits of the students’ work have not only been restricted to the classroom or students’ homes – they have also helped others in the neighbourhood.

For instance, the students began repairing and selling LED bulbs – though villagers were hesitant to trust the lights at first, they were soon won over by their cheaper prices and the fact that the students themselves could fix the bulbs if needed. In order to overcome the problem of power cuts in their village, they also began making solar lights for their households, and selling them to neighbours.

The devices have even helped street vendors in the local market. A few years ago, on a trip to the weekly market, students realised that most would shut shop after about 6 pm and go home because daylight would fade and electricity supply was erratic. “We decided to give them our solar lights, and so now around five of them use it and stay on until they want to,” said 20-year-old Aparna Kumari, who formerly studied under Chandra.

Aparna and other former students now regularly sell their bulbs to villagers and local shops in the panchayat.

Students have also innovated in response to current events. In May 2021, after watching news reports of Cyclone Yaas, they created a prototype of a portable emergency device made from recycled waste material, to be used in times of power outages during disasters. The device had solar power lights, a loudspeaker and a power bank that could charge multiple devices simultaneously.

Opportunities for girls

Current and former students pointed out that the various batches of students who have attended the vocational training programme have been dominated by girls. “There are fewer boys who opt for vocational education, and boys usually attend ITIs for this line of work,” said Deepika Kumari, a former student of Chandra’s. “So our initiative is also women-led.”

This trend is particularly striking in light of the broader pattern of male dominance in vocational training programmes. This bias is particularly pronounced in technical fields. A 2019 study found that in the country’s Industrial Training Institutes, women were largely receiving training in dressmaking and computer operation, and that less than 5% were enrolled in engineering-related courses.

In fact, policy experts have even flagged a specific gender bias in those who receive training from the government for jobs related to solar energy – data from the Ministry of Renewable Energy shows that up to June 2025, 94% of those trained in the Suryamitra scheme for skill development for jobs in the solar energy sector were men.

Chandra noted that part of his motivation was to challenge the belief that vocational education is inferior to conventional academic education. “Vocational education is not taken seriously in the mainstream,” he said. “I want to do away with the myth that vocational education is useless.”

Indeed, the work has opened up avenues to several of its female students. Deepika, and five of her batch mates, Aparna, Priya, Rani, Usha and Puja, were featured in a list of 75 women leaders in India by UN Women. The book referred to them as the “Kumari girls”, because they all use the surname Kumari. All five are pursuing diplomas in electrical engineering, from either Bokaro or Ranchi, and continue to work on promoting the use of green energy in their villages.

Some of the young women have also won grants for their work. In December 2024, Deepika received a grant of Rs 50,000 from the Jharkhand Technical University to work on developing green energy resources for the village. Aparna, meanwhile, received a grant of Rs 1 lakh from the National Youth Climate Consortium, a grassroots initiative by Bring Back Green Foundation, which is supported by UNICEF India, also to work toward adopting green energy in the village. “I hope to make my village run entirely on solar power one day,” she said.

A few months ago, the Kumari girls, along with Chandra, submitted a proposal to the Jharkhand Renewable Energy Development Agency to install solar street lights, and power public institutions, such as the school and the community health centre, entirely with solar energy.

Many of the students hope to secure jobs in the renewable energy sector in the future. “Learning all these skills in school itself will hopefully make it easier for us to find jobs in the future in this line of work,” said Sonali Kumari, who is now in Class 12, and whose batch is currently working on creating a solar-powered pond-cleaning device. “When my parents built a new house, I did the electrical wiring of the entire house. They were very happy with me.”

Not just students

Women in the village have also benefited from the work done in the school. For instance, in October, the Kumari girls helped organise a week-long training programme under the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana, which aims to promote the adoption of rooftop solar panels, at the Tata Power Skill Development Institute in Maithon. Around 30 women attended the training on solar photo voltaic cell installation, which itself had been preceded by a year of pre-training by the Kumari girls.

“I like doing this work. As a homemaker who didn’t study much, I didn’t have a lot of opportunities to work outside the house,” said Pramila Devi, the resident of Dantoo, who attended the training programme. “Thanks to these girls we have the opportunity to develop our skills.”

Chandra explained that the women would use everything that they had learnt. “They will now be identifying solar lights to be repaired in the village and then work on manufacturing solar lights, and other devices,” he said.

The training in the schools has even culminated in a commercial venture. In 2023, former and present students started a company named ARD Electricals, under which they sell and repair lights at a small scale. Now, women from the October training session have also joined them, and the group plans on expanding their work. Already, alongside solar powered devices, they have worked on creating other non-technical sustainable products, such as purses made from plastic bottles and cups made from coconut shells.

But girls and women in the village also encounter restrictions when it comes to this work. Recently, two women who had received training at Tata Power were offered placements as solar technicians in companies – but they are uncertain if they will accept. “The offer is from a company in Ghaziabad, UP. I’m not sure if my family will let me go so far on my own though,” said one of the women, Meera Kumari. Meanwhile, some women in the group who received training from the Kumari girls in working with solar technology did not receive permission from their families to attend training sessions outside the village.

Logistical challenges

The students also face logistical challenges. Chandra noted, for instance, that funding had slowed down of late, forcing him to spend money from his salary on purchasing materials for classroom projects. “The vocational education scheme was well funded earlier, but now there is a huge delay in payments,” he said. “This impacts the work we are able to do.”

In response, students have begun efforts to obtain funds from other avenues. “The funds have so far been provided by Animesh sir, but now by applying for grants and selling our wares, we hope to raise enough money for our projects,” Aparna said.

Irregular power supply is also a major hurdle in the work, and makes it difficult for students to work on projects at the school itself. “We can’t rely on the electricity at school. We have to take our projects to the homes of students who have inverters,” said Chandra.

Students also struggle with administrative hurdles. For instance, they said that two sets of solar panels were installed at the school a few years ago but they had stopped functioning and had since remained in a state of disrepair. Although the students have the skills to repair the panels, they explained, they cannot touch them because to do so, they need permission from the local administration.

More broadly, Chandra explained, the villagers’ own practices needed to shift towards greater sustainability. He recounted that recently when the school headmaster announced that a brick boundary wall would be made around the school garden, Chandra intervened and said his students would make the boundary using plastic bottles stuffed with plastic bags. “I told them to get plastic bags from their homes, but they brought very few,” he said.

After asking them for more plastic bags, students explained that they regularly used plastic bags at home to light stovetops and fires. “Imagine, burning plastic is so harmful for your health, but they do it daily to light their stoves,” he said.

The initial spark for this story came from a workshop organised by the Internews’ Earth Journalism Network.