The two research bodies have come together after the CEEW approached ICMR based on their own research, published in February this year as Solar for Powering Health and Education in India, that found 4.4 percent PHCs in the country have no electricity at all, which affects about 33 million rural Indians.
In a bid to strengthen the primary health infrastructure in the country, the Indian Council of Medical Research has piloted a programme to power Primary Health Centres through solar energy. Partnering with the think tank Council for Energy, Environment and Water, the country's apex medical research body has signed an MoU to study if solar can be an effective solution for almost 33 million Indians who have to make do with primary health infrastructure with no electricity at all.
The two research bodies have come together after the CEEW approached ICMR based on their own research, published in February this year as Solar for Powering Health and Education in India, that found 4.4 percent PHCs in the country have no electricity at all, which affects about 33 million rural Indians. This doesn't even account for the centres that have power for only a handful of hours.
For now, however, the programme will start small, with a few PHCs in three states. A technical committee formed by the ICMR is working with state nodal officers from across the country and, for now, Haryana, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and/or Maharashtra are being considered, as they have shown an early interest in the project, Dr Arunabha Ghosh CEO, CEEW, told dna. Maharashtra is in the running as it has already worked on solar energy in the past, hence demonstrated an existing interest and awareness of the process.
Ghosh elaborated on the criteria for each PHC, saying that the ones selected should have less than 10 hours of electricity, but an existing infrastructure for new born care, 80-90 institutional deliveries per month, 24x7 functionality and, most importantly, proper maintenance of records.
"It's not just about provision of power," said Ghosh, "but we need to establish a baseline to then measure whether there is an increase in patients, a difference in services provided, what the situation of power supply is on the ground. For that, records need to be maintained."
After the project is deployed in August, once the states are finalised, CEEW's role will come into play in designing the infrastructure on ground, overseeing implementation and a four month evaluation. Based on such results, sates will scale up solar energy for other PHCs. A project such as this could bring down the stress on district hospitals and tertiary care centres, which currently shoulder the burden of dysfunctional PHCs.
"Though states such as Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha have more number of unelectrified PHCs, we need to start work with those that meet these criteria so that we can establish our baseline," said Ghosh. Jharkhand alone has 42.5 percent unelectrified PHCs.
Though it will take 18-24 months before health metrics start changing, Ghosh added, this could be a way to encourage states to take up renewable energy. It will show state governments that not only do community services increase and improve but the cost to run them through conventional power means comes down.
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