A midwife works by lamplight
Mundolav Village in Ajmer District, Rajasthan, is connected to the electricity grid, but this doesn’t mean the 400 families who live there enjoy much of the benefits of electricity. Scheduled power cuts in this rural area mean they have access to power for only three hours during the day, and four hours in the evening. For the rest of their light the residents use kerosene lamps and candles, but there is no power alternative for irrigating their crops. The Barefoot College in nearby Tilonia has distributed three solar lamps to Mundolav: two are used to run a night school for children, and the third is used by the local midwife.
Danwarsingh Rajput, 35, Teacher
“We have night schools here as during the day children have to take the animals to find grazing, and so can’t come for classes. So we have school from 7pm to 10pm every night, on the verandah of my house. Twenty-eight children come between 1st and 5th standard and we teach them everything – reading and writing, mathematics, geography.
“Before we got the solar lanterns we were using kerosene lamps, which didn’t give enough light and strained the eyes. Children would have to sit very close to the lamp and would get bothered and bitten by the insects that came to the light. They’re very smoky too, which would make us cough and give breathing problems. The solar lamps are clean and give out more light, so we can sit further away from the insects. They don’t blow out like the kerosene lamps either, which means that we can walk the children home after school when it’s late at night and not as safe. So more children come now, and we can have school more often – because the solar lamps don’t go out in wind or rain like the kerosene lamps, now we have classes in all seasons.”
Hagami Devi, 40, Midwife
“I’ve been a midwife for ten years now; before I earned a labourer’s wage. The community selected me and sent me to Barefoot College for training to help the village women in their pregnancy. I like it: there are no other health facilities in rural places like this and so the women rely on me.
“Every day I do the rounds of the pregnant women in the village. In the evening I take the solar light to examine them by. Some are very nervous because it is their first baby, and having the light helps them feel calmer. We have a little electricity in this village, but what if there is a delivery in the middle of the night? Kerosene lamps are dim and I can’t see the situation of the child properly. They’re also a fire hazard. So having the solar lantern is a big help.
“In my ten years as a midwife I’ve delivered 200-300 children by the light of this solar lantern. This month alone it has helped me deliver eight healthy babies.”
Gajanand Vaishanav, unemployed resident
Gajanand Vaishanav can’t speak very much, but through his gestures and the words of the other villagers he communicated his story.
The electrical wires that connect the village are low quality, he says, as contractors take advantage of the residents’ low level of education to purchase cheap wires and keep the surplus money. During the rainy season the walls of the houses sometimes become electrified and consequently accidents happen – three years ago, three children died from shocks imparted by faulty wiring.
During the rainy season ten years ago, an electrical wire fell onto Gajanand’s head and electrocuted him. He didn’t die, but spent two weeks in hospital and can no longer speak articulately. His hands are frozen as claws and one is withered; his blood circulation is poor and his limbs are thin and useless. Where the electrical wire touched his head no hair grows and there is a stripe of scarred scalp. The majority of his days are spent lying on a mat in the house of his elderly mother as his condition means he can’t work, and has never married. He is in constant pain.
