In 2015, I visited a few villages in the Northeastern part of India. At that time, not all households in rural India were electrified. During those days the unelectrified households in rural areas mostly used kerosene lamps for lighting post sunset. A public sector undertaking distributed Solar Homelighting Systems to a few un-electrified households. Solar Homelighting Systems generate electricity from the sun and store it in batteries. This stored electricity lights up the tube lights and bulbs in the evening and night. The users felt the immense benefits of Solar Home lighting Systems. Students could study well without straining their eyes, the women were happy to cook and serve dinners in better quality lights, and the crawling animals were now easy to spot at night. The bulbs and tube lights provided quality illumination during evening and night hours and were much more convenient than the kerosene lamps.

Rural household electrification paced in India. I revisited the villages in 2018, 2020 and 2022. During the years from 2016 to 2020, almost all the rural houses got electricity connections in that district. Now, the Solar Homelighting Systems were providing electricity during power cuts. The power cuts were regular for 4-5 hours during the evening time. The users were happy with their Solar Lighting Systems. For them, it was now a source of power backup during power cuts and technical faults. The users narrated the major benefit of the Solar Homelighting Systems as reduced electricity bills in comparison to the houses without Solar Homelighting Systems.

I visited the area again in the year 2024. The electricity supply in the district improved. Now the power cuts were mostly due to technical faults or nature-related cases such as heavy rains or falling of trees. The relevance of Solar Home lighting Systems were only limited to the days of disrupted power supply.

Solar Homelighting Systems, once considered as a boon, had very limited relevance now. The decade showed how the relevance of the Solar Homelighting System changed with the electricity connection and improved power supply scenario.

(Views are personal.)