I wish to start by mentioning an ambiguous on paper record within the country which stated India’s every corner is electrified as per Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Yojana, 2005 followed by JN National Solar Mission, 2010 and Remote village electrification projects, 2011. While it is evident in energy literature that India is much far away from their target. The country’s disbalance in production and consumption and misrecognition of the vulnerable is what dismissing India from its goal of decarbonization. It has been argued that rural areas are often the host of energy extraction and power plants to meet the need of urban patches.
Little do we know, the epoch of industrialization and further anthropogenic desire for modernization and development resulted in bad luck for the already deprived. The core inception of this issue is centralization. It has been argued that policymakers lens are biased towards economic agility of policy structure and ignorant towards socio-environmental transition. What is the remedy? The remedy of the hour is decentralization. The term decentralization as it means to empower stakeholders including people. This would lend a voice and inclusion in decision making in the energy scenario.
Importance of stakeholders participation:
Spatial and temporal factors is argued to be the cause of injustice in the energy sector. India’s geography is uneven, keeping rural patches towards the edge. It is quite hard for non-renewable to reach out those hamlets through grid. This clears the need of off-grid or standalone projects. In such cases involving stakeholders, empowering them by making them responsible for the production and consumption of energy by themselves, can be impactful. A local engagement would not only ensure electrification but also have the potential to create job opportunities.
Community based renewable projects like solar is assumed as an effective alternative, energy trilemma balancing concept. There are several kinds of easy to go and handle clean energy. This initiatives are assumed to ensure just transition by creating jobs as well if implemented effectively.
In conclusion, the need of the hour is self awareness and spread awareness to build back better.