Deena Ganvir is an Adivasi rights activist and Community Correspondent form Kawardha, Chhattisgarh. Ganvir was apprehensive of failure when she started out at Video Volunteers, she felt that it was impossible for her to hold a phone, let alone a camera. She was certain that her low level of education would create barriers in the work. She felt that working…

Deena Ganvir

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A remote tribal village of Chhattisgarh has never seen electricity. While government schemes such as Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY), worth $11 billion, have visions to provide continuous power supply to rural India, the Parevachapa village in Pandaria district of Chattisgarh, a village established 16 years ago, is still stuck in dark ages. "There has never been electricity in this village. We have suffered from darkness forever," says Dundalli Bai, one of the 130 residents of the village, to Deena Ganwer, our community correspondent in Chhattisgarh.

Because of lack of electricity, livelihoods of people suffer. They undertake agriculture, small businesses and daily survival without the availability of modern-day technology. "As the night falls, our lives depend on the fire. Our children struggle to study under the lamps," says Dundalli, while listing the various problems that plague the dark village. She further reveals that many children, unable to study under oil lamps have dropped out of school.

Various international studies have made a strong positive relation between rural electrification, literacy and education, leading to better living standards. It has been observed that average percent literacy in Indian villages without electricity was lower than the villages that had been newly electrified or had been electrified since long. Electrification in rural areas also helps in improving overall health - as there is a reduction in polluting fuels used for, cooking, lighting and heating; and access to various everyday technologies.

The residents of the village have appealed to various administrative heads to solve the situation, but fake assurances are all they got in return. "We have been to the Sarpanch (village head) and the block office of the state power corporation multiple times. But all they say is 'We will soon resolve your problems.' But till now, no lights have been lit here," Dundalli tells Deena.

Call to Action: Help light up Dundalli's village. A simple call from your phone can help a student study, a farmer work and a household cook. Dial +91-7754254024 and talk Dilipkumar Ramesh, the block officer, Electricity Dep, Pandaria demanding that Parevachapa village of Chhattisgarh gets electrified.

Community correspondent Deena Ganwer reports from Chhattisgarh for Video Volunteers.

This video was made by a Video Volunteers Community Correspondent. Community Correspondents come from marginalised communities in India and produce videos on unreported stories. These stories are ’news by those who live it.’ they give the hyperlocal context to global human rights and development challenges. See more such videos at www.videovolunteers.org. Take action for a more just global media by sharing their videos and joining in their call for change. we could hyperlink to some VV pages, like our take action page.