An Australian company lighting India’s slums with solar energy is providing a solution to the problem of deadly air pollution in India’s poorest areas, a media report said on Tuesday.
Pollinate Energy, a company founded by five Australians, is changing the way the people in Indian slums use light in the night.
Its portable solar lamp, with a port to charge a mobile phone, has replaced dirty kerosene lamps in 8,000 homes, ABC reported.
According to the company, indoor air pollution from kerosene lamps and stoves are the second leading cause of death in the world’s second most populous country, making the Australian lamp a potential game changer.
Pollinate Energy employs locals to go tent to tent to sell the solar lights. The lights cost about 30 Australian dollars ($23)each.
The company allows the customers to pay in instalments.
It has sold over 7,000 lights in Bengaluru and is expanding to two more Indian cities.
“Bangalore, the city that we started in, was the first city in India to become electrified over 100 years ago and yet in Bangalore it is only 70-80 percent electrified,” Pollinate Energy co-founder Kat Kimmorley said.
“What we’ve found is by providing a light, kids are going to school, mums are working in the evening.”
“They see opportunity and they have taken the next step to move upwards and onwards,” Kimmorley added.
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