Rahul’s Kalavati now backs Greenpeace

Less than a year ago, 50-year-old Kalavati Bandukar knew the value of energy but little about the difference between nuclear, thermal, or renewable energy sources.

But this widow, whose husband, a farmer, committed suicide in 2005 after being unable to pay his debts, is now learning not only about the different kinds of power but also the politics of power.

On Monday, Greenpeace, an international non-governmental organisation, made Kalavati a brand ambassador for renewable energy. This, incidentally, is in contrast to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s attempt to espouse her case as the reason for the United Progressive Alliance signing the signing the nuclear energy deal with the United States.

Greenpeace also launched a project in her village, Jalka, in Ralegaon tehsil of Yavatmal district. Kalavati and her fellow villager are looking forward to a solar-powered future. “Now,” said the mother of nine, “my village has a future.”

The woman, who was till July 2008 an unknown entity, found her world changing after Rahul Gandhi came calling on her in Jalka village. Two days later, Gandhi gave her example to support the nuclear deal during the crucial vote in the Lok Sabha, saying that India’s many Kalavatis too needed electricity to light up their huts.

A month later, Sulabh International, an NGO that promotes sanitation, adopted her, offering to pay her Rs25,000 per month for the next 30 years. Greenpeace campaigners, who spent about a week in Jalka, have donated a solar panel to run gadgets in the village school, as part of the project that the voluntary group wants to popularise as a cost-effective green technology over the costlier and environmentally destructive nuclear technology. While it may take time for the nuclear energy to reach masses, renewable energy can be tapped at once.

“We’d like to invite Rahul Gandhi to our village tomorrow to see the change this solar energy has brought to us, and request him to take this vision forward,” said an excited village sarpanch (head) Anusuya Kumbhre. The NGO has set up solar panels to run ten fans and a computer in the village school.

Maitree Dasgupta, Greenpeace Climate and Energy campaigner, said Greenpeace wants to challenge the political class to think beyond the failed attempts at rural electrification. “The time has come to unleash an energy revolution and to look at citizens as producers of power, not just passive consumers,” she said.

Jalka villagers had voted for renewable energy by signing up a poster drawn by school children. “I am glad our school can enjoy a power cut-free future,” said Padmini, headmistress of the school. Greenpeace activist Siddharth Pathak said a million Kalavatis are waiting for energy.

“This is an opportunity to provide them reliable and clean power,” he said, adding that solar power could be a permanent solution to the frequent power cuts in villages.