article on electricity problems faced by locality and also some suggestions
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It has been a long time coming. The Narendra Modi government has now announced the electrification of all inhabited census villages. A village is considered electrified if it possesses basic electrical infrastructure and 10% of its homes have access to power. However, nearly one-fifth of India’s rural households (around 31 million) still remain in acute darkness. The government is committed to reaching these households through the Saubhagya scheme by 31 December 2018—a deadline that has been moved up from 31 March 2019. The project’s ambition is praiseworthy. But is it enough?
Electrification schemes like the previous Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY), and the ongoing Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) and Saubhagya schemes have focused on establishing village electricity infrastructure. DDUGJY, for example, provided electricity access to the remaining 18,452 inhabited villages. There are issues with these schemes, certainly—confusion over data regarding the number of households in the country and inconsistencies in the data put out by state electricity discoms. The largest issue, however, might be the lack of focus on supply-side barriers.
The rapid pace of rural electrification has clearly not been matched by adoption at the household level. According to a 2015 World Bank study, Power For All: Electricity Access Challenge In India, “even where electricity service has been locally available, many village households choose not to adopt a connection". For instance, states like Tripura and Sikkim, despite almost universal access, have among the lowest consumption rates. Examining this gap between electricity access and household-level adoption allows for a better understanding of supply-demand problems that characterize the lag between village electrification and households’ decisions to connect.