Lighting up lives

“Monsoons are when people here feel the need for electricity the most — snakes are at large and nobody feels safe stepping out. But that is also the time when power supply is the most erratic,” said Mazgaonkar, a textile and mechanical engineer. Michael and his activist wife Swati have been working in Mozda since 1991, sharing their skills and resources with the tribals. On a hillock behind Michael’s tribal cottage stands the 30-feet-tall windmill. Its three fibre glass blades uses 24 rare-earth metal magnets to generate power. This power is transported through wires to a room in Michael’s cottage, which has the power house. Here, a rectifier coverts the AC current to DC and stores it in a battery pack.

Member families of the power co-operative pay a one-time membership fee of Rs 101 and then Rs 25 as subscription charges every month. “We provide each house with LED lamps and do the wiring ourselves,” explained Ishwar Vasava, one of the villagers who works for the power co-operative.

Ishwar and his wife Jayanti Vasava, who have been trained to make LED lamps and are experts at maintaining the windmill, help Mazgaonkar ensure that Mozda doesn’t have dark nights anymore. They also help subscribers charge their batteries every day.