Her household is brightened by the presence of a solar lantern

Narrow, winding lanes led to Annakamu Shanmugam’s home. It was a hot Saturday afternoon and I was en route to the village of S. Kannanur to meet her; she was a borrower of Milaap who had bought a solar lantern. 

As the field officer and I reached her home, she welcomed us with glasses of cold lemonade. We drank noisily, grateful for the quencher. A shy woman, Annakamu made little talk, but as we started speaking about the hot summer setting in, and her family, she opened up and we had a good conversation. Annakamu resides with her husband who is a flower vendor, and two children - a son who attends Class 9 and a daughter who is in Class 8. She, along with a few of her neighbours decided to get a solar lantern for their homes, owing to erratic and frequent power cuts. 

“The power outage situation was worse a few years ago, but now it’s relatively better,” she said. “However, summer is still the prime time for power cuts. Long power-cuts during the day and sometimes during nights disturb our everyday life and chores.” Before she bought the solar lantern, Annakamu made use of candles and kerosene lamps to get by. But candles gave only a dim light and kerosene lamps did more harm than good. She pointed to the wall spaces in her home where soot emitted by kerosene lamps had stuck and refused to leave. “And to think I used to spend Rs. 28 on two litres of kerosene every month,” she exclaimed. Annakamu’s kids are the biggest beneficiaries of the solar lantern. Earlier, they used kerosene lamps and candles to get their school work done during outages. But now, kerosene lamps no longer find a place in Annakamu’s home, and her kids make good use of the solar lantern for their work. 

Annakamu charges her solar lantern daily in the mornings. She connects it to the solar panel and places it outside in the hot sun until the lamp gets charged fully. But she rued that if she uses the lantern to charge phones, the battery gets drained quickly, resulting in lesser time the lamp can be used. As the summer gets hotter and power cuts unbearable, Annakamu is happy that she owns a reliable source of light energy that assuages the situation. I requested her to pose with her solar lantern and she happily obliged.