Tag Archives: electricity

Measuring Impact of Be! Radio

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Mehzabeen is 16 and lives in a Sheikhpura village in Mane district in Bihar. She had to drop out of school after class 10 so her younger brother could complete his education, but she continues her studies at home. She loves listening to the radio and she loves stories. She even writes her own stories and sends them to All India Radio, and hopes they will go on the air one day.

Mehzabeen says she listens to our Be! radio plays on All India Radio every Sunday so she can learn about different business models.

Mehzabeen called our Be! Fund helpline because she has lots of problems she wants to solve. The first thing she asked us was:

“Can you tell me how to grow rice without water? We didn’t have enough rain this year for our crops to grow, and I heard your radio play on organic farming and thought you could help me.”

“I have seven siblings and we all wait eagerly to hear your plays. Radio is the only source of entertainment—and information—for me and my sisters. It’s hard for us to go out and get information ourselves.”

“There are lots of problems in my village—electricity, education, no land for farming—and I want to start a business to solve them. I am a hardworking girl and ready to work but I have no resources to work on a business plan.”

“I have seen two solar lights in my village—one in the mosque and the other one in the village temple. After hearing your play, I found out that you can get solar lights from the market. Earlier I thought you can only get solar lights from the government. Can we have solar lights for our home as well?”

The response from Be! Radio has shown us that there are budding entrepreneurs like Mehzabeen everywhere!

Seher’s Bolt of Lightning Business

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Seher and Zainab's slum outside the city

Seher, age 19, and her sister Zainab, age 13, live with their father in an unauthorized slum because of which,  have no water, no toilets and no electricity. When night falls, Seher and Zainab only have the dim glow of an old kerosene lamp to live by and when the oil runs out they are left in complete darkness. Zainab can’t finish her homework and Seher who runs a tiffin business for people who go to offices can’t prepare the food.  Their father is a carpenter and he used to go to the city to find work but gradually, the amount of work reduced to the point that now, he spends the whole day sitting in his chair and staring out of the window. Seher has the responsibility of earning money and ensuring that Zainab doesn’t drop out of school, like many other girls in the slum.

Inside Seher's house

Everyday when Zainab goes to school, Seher has to line up with the other women from the slum to buy kerosene so that life doesn’t have to stop when the sun goes down. They wait long hours–sometimes not getting any kerosene at all because the shopkeeper has a dishonest arrangement with the deceitful slumlord Bhali Masi. He raises the fixed prices of kerosene when he begins to run low or doesn’t open the shop at all.  Seher is fed up of this daily routine and when her kerosene lamp breaks again, it’s for the last time.

Is there no escape from kerosene?

“Isn’t there another way we could get light without standing in line for hours?” she asks Taar babu, the electrician, when she goes to get the lantern repaired. Taar babu shows her an ad in the newspaper for solar light – it is possible to charge batteries using the light of the sun and use them to run solar lamps. Seher and Zainab set out to learn more about how they can have solar lights in their slum —all the while they are followed by 15 year old Neeraj, a school boy, who always keeps a close watch on Seher to make sure she is safe.

Neeraj follows Seher to make sure she is safe

Seher is crushed when she finds out how expensive solar panels and lamps are and thinks she will never be able to afford it for the slum.

But just as they turn to go home, Zainab tells her sister she wants Chinese noodles “but there is no stall with Chinese food in this market”.  Seher notices that not only is there no Chinese food stall but the street vendors too use kerosene lamps to light up their stall. She begins to cook up a plan that will bring solar light to their slum while also supporting her family so that Zainab can stay in school.  But will Seher’s persistence be enough to bring solar light to her slum? How will she get people to switch from kerosene lamps to solar powered one?  What will Bhali Masi, the dishonest slumlord, do if Seher starts taking business away?  And will Chinese noodles light up the night in a slum with no electricity?

Will solar energy solve the problem of Seher's slum?

Find out by reading this book when it comes out later this year.

The Amazing Adventures of Phulwa the Mechanic

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Meet Phulwa. She is 19 years old and unlike any other girl in her dusty little village. She works as a mechanic helping her father, Ram Prasad, at his ramshackle garage on the highway.

One dark night, a car breaks down on the highway. A city-wala pushes the car to Ram Prasad’s garage and is surprised to see Phulwa there. “You’re just a girl, how can you fix a car?”

Phulwa stands up for herself. “I’m the best mechanic in this whole village. I’ll show you.”

But Phulwa’s village doesn’t have electricity and without it, she can’t repair the car, not even with her expert jugaad skills. Embarrassed and angry, Phulwa decides that enough is enough. Young men from her village have been leaving for the city in droves. There is no enterprise here and everything shuts down at dusk. It’s time for things to change. She’s going to find a way to bring electricity to her village.

She hunts down information and with the help of Kumar discovers a village a 100 kilometers away with light. This village generates electricity from a biomass gassifier plant. This is Phulwa’s solution, but she can’t do it alone. She needs to get the people in her village to contribute money to construct the biomass plant. But how will she convince Gayatri, the sarpanch (village head) to support her? Especially when Gayatri’s scheming husband is intent on sabotaging Phulwa’s plan? And how will she convince the villagers, who have long since given up on the dream of electricity?

Find out when this graphic novel comes out later this year.

Be! Radio hits the airwaves on All India Radio, Delhi

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Tune in to AIR FM 102.6 all this month to hear epic adventures starring young entrepreneurs and learn about the Be Fund. Radio episodes air every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday at 8 p.m.

“THUD!” A football lands in the middle of a large garbage pile in a teeming urban slum. A group of boys frantically rummage through the trash—wrinkling their noses in disgust at the smell—but are unable to find it. So begins the story of Pintu, a young man who has come to the city from his village, who decides enough is enough—it’s time to clean up the slum and start a profitable waste management business with the help of his 99 friends. So, too, begins our first Be! Radio series.

On Sunday, August 8th, Going to School launched the first episode of our 15-part series on All India Radio in New Delhi and NCR. The 22-minute drama follows the exciting journey of Pintu as he starts a waste management enterprise, and encounters many challenges along the way from battling negative attitudes of people and to a show-down with the local slumlord.

Two more episodes air this week, featuring Gauri, who transforms her sleepy cut-off village into a vibrant hub when she starts an IT and information kiosk and Seher, who brings light to her slum when she rents out solar lamps to street vendors. Both these hero-entrepreneurs overcome unsupportive naysayers to change their lives and the lives of those around them.

Be Radio! tells stories different enterprise models and inspires young people, with the support of their parents, teachers and other decision-makers in their lives, to start businesses that solve problems in their communities. Each episode also tells young people between the ages of 18-29 from low-income communities how to submit their business proposals to the Be Fund, in order to get funding and mentorship to turn their ideas into reality.