Our website now has a page focusing on these topics - Please visit www.bhopavillage.com and see the variety of endeavours the project is pursuing in the aim of betterment for the community.
Prior to 2020 most of the light at night came from the moon and the cooking fire, called a thuli in Hindi. These cooking fires are usually made by the village women using a mitti mix of sand, water, cow dung and grass. The light from the fire means all the cooking and elements to the dish being prepared, are at hand and just within the arc of the firelight.
In 2020, amidst the first lockdown, portable solar lights were purchased and delivered to the village.
These lights have proved to be one of the most popular items given out over the course of the last four years. The women value them highly and they can be used anywhere with ease. The children also know them as one of the most prized household items they possess.
Over the years, the need to charge them in the sun and the rudimentary instructions for use and care have percolated through the community. Solar power and the electrics involved were initially a new concept to many in the village. One of the villages’ oldest residents has been known to greet our workers on every visit until a replacement light was brought as her’s had broken falling from the grass roof where it sits charging through the day.
Each year replacements have been given to those who have needed them as theirs have broken. The new solar lights delivered village wide and to new residents this week, replenish the old and care worn ones. They are sturdier and smaller than they were in 2020 but nonetheless still an aspirational item and to have more than one per household is naturally desirable. This fairly basic item revolutionises cooking, going out to the desert for toilet visits, grants some protection from dangerous animals and allows for more sitting out talking with friends in the evening.
Over the course of the winter of 2022/23, one of the most elderly and respected members of the village was suffering from severe asthma attacks and ended up being hospitalised. To put an elderly Bhopa in hospital, away from the sand dunes, children playing and nature is like incarceration. However, the cold weather meant constant fires for warmth and these are harmful as the smoke is everywhere and the wind sweeps up the sand and dust increasing the irritants in the lungs. The family managed to buy a 200 watt panel system and built a bamboo tower so that a nebuliser could be run at night and over time, this residents health has improved. This inspired the Bhopa village to start to look for more economical and more powerful ways to bring electricity to the village.
The new development in early 2023 was the introduction of these solar power units. The project could only afford those units that retail here for £65/ 6500 rupees. They include a 60 watt solar panel and a box that can run a small radio, charge a phone and provide static light from the box. Many have had extra wiring and lightbulbs attached to also run light outside to the thuli and/or kitchen tent. Cleaning and pointing the panels in the right direction has required some ingenuity in the case of some of the grass houses and if any stop working there is a guarantee, so fixing has been possible. There are now four installed in the village but with 40 households there is still a long way to go. We would also prefer to bring larger units servicing many familial households in the future.
If you wish to donate towards the provision of more of these units please Paypal bhopavillage@yahoo.com photo panels.
All of the villages electrical needs have been met at great prices, with smiles and constant assistance by the team at Radhey Electrics in Pushkar on Leela Seori (Ajmer) Road.
They have been a godsend to us, professional excellence and with such kindness toward the project. We highly recommend them and continue to enjoy a fantastic relationship.
They are for all those new customers to see.
Moving forward, we hope to work with Radhey to increase the number of units and the size/wattage with our future purchases to provide more power.
The Government has run power lines out along the Mortiser Road in readiness for the Camel Fair in November 2023. The stalls and plotting of land has now made it a necessity for power 6km outside Pushkar Market. There are also the beginnings of large developments for expensive hotels and their driveways. As the land changes around the Bhopa village, the Bhopa are more aware of their electricity poverty, compared to those living and working near to them. Government electricity is only granted to communities with brick houses and therefore a ‘real’ address. The constant insecurity of the Bhopa’s place and sense of home is a huge factor limiting what can be done. Nonetheless, in the interim, providing these units brings much more economic and commercial viability to their small business, as well as longer hours and light for living more like every other indian.
Thank you for all your support over the years. Please follow us on Facebook at Bhopa village where you can see what the life in the village has looked like over the last 4 years. It has become a social history record of the village and project.
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