Imagine crossing a river with the help of a rope and then trekking for six days to reach your home. Members of the Idu Mishmi tribes of Gandhigram village in Arunachal Pradesh do not have to imagine this – it is their everyday reality.
For biker Merwyn Coutinho, though, this had sounded like the possibility of another adventure. He had quit his comfortable job in Bengaluru, and with just a tent and some clothes, he set off on a motorbike journey. And when he found himself in Arunachal Pradesh, he couldn’t invited his friend Rajiv Rathod for a trek to Gandhigram.
Little did the trekkers know that over the next seven years, they would end up bringing light into the homes of villages which had never experienced electricity.
Upon discovering that the locals would rely on firewood and, at times, nothing after the sun set, Coutinho and Rathod decided to place solar lamps as Christmas gifts for the villagers.
The wide response they received encouraged them to start the crowdfunded Batti Project. The video above follows the Batti team in Dopowa, capturing the difficult terrain – one of the reasons successive governments haven’t been able to get electric power to these villages. But these two men have changed that, finally.
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