Chhattisgarh bets on ‘solar didis’ for green energy & womenpreneurship

Raipur: In many villages of Chhattisgarh, women have long carried firewood on their heads, cooked in smoke-filled kitchens, rolled bidis and waited through power cuts that brought irrigation pumps, mills and livelihoods to a halt. Now, the state wants those women to run solar-powered cold storages, repair energy systems, manage village-level power assets and become the face of a rural green revolution.In what is being projected as one of Chhattisgarh’s most ambitious women-led development experiments, the state govt has approved the ‘Dweepti Yojana’ for 2026–2031 — a programme that aims to turn rural women into owners, operators and technicians of clean energy infrastructure.The scheme, to be implemented through the panchayat and rural development department and the vast bihan self-help group network, seeks to blend renewable energy with livelihood generation in villages where employment opportunities for women often remain limited.At the centre of the plan is a new rural identity the govt wants to create — the ‘Solar Didi’.Chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai described the scheme as a step towards turning rural women into “owners and managers” in the energy sector instead of remaining mere consumers.“Our goal is to make every village energy self-reliant, led by ‘solar didis’ themselves,” CM Sai said, adding that the programme aligns with the Centre’s green energy and net-zero vision.Under the scheme, selected village women will be trained to install, operate and maintain solar-powered systems ranging from irrigation pumps and flour mills to cold storages and community energy assets.Officials believe this could solve a long-standing rural problem: technical breakdowns in remote villages where even minor faults often leave public infrastructure defunct for weeks due to lack of engineers or repair staff.“This changes the role of women from beneficiaries to managers of infrastructure,” a senior official associated with the programme said.The govt is also attempting to turn self-help groups into energy entrepreneurs.Cluster level federations (CLFs), which currently function as women-led community organisations, will now be transformed into “women energy cooperative societies” responsible for managing and servicing energy assets at the village level.To make the model financially sustainable in rural areas, the scheme proposes “pay-per-use” and “pay-as-you-go” systems, where villagers pay only for the energy they consume rather than making large upfront investments.The govt has decided to reserve 25% of panchayat maintenance contracts for these women-led energy groups — a move expected to create a stable stream of local income.