Mansi Pradhan is a Dokra Craft Artisans from Sadeibaerni Village of Dhenkanal District. She is 30 years old and has 8 members in her family. All the family members are engaged in the dokra Craft works and earn their livelihood through these crafts. They are experts in making Dokra Tortoise and Fish. She gets regular orders from a local NGO from Bhubaneswar.
Though her house is being electrified, there are rampant cases of frequent power cuts which are around 3-4 times in a day or 14-15 hours of power cuts. This resulted in less productivity of her work, she only managed to work on order during the day time. Even her children could study during the night.
At night even if there is electricity the voltage fluctuations did not allow her to work and not allowed her children to study. This had created a big problem for her. Even several complaints to the electricity department did not work.
AIACA started its intervention at Sadeibareni along with Project partner SELCO Foundation and conducted a baseline where the immediate need was requirement of electricity for the village. AIACA along with SELCO Foundation installed 2 solar lights and one fan in her house and also provided instructions to use the same like charging the battery, cleaning the solar panel and putting distilled water in the battery.
Now, Mansi is quite happy , even if there is no electricity in her house, she can still use solar powered lights and fans. She can now work even during the nights and their children can study under the light. She said that it’s a blessing in disguise. Her productivity has increased and now can complete the orders on time.