Lighting a Billion Lives (LaBL)

Over 1.4 billion people in the world lack access to electricity; roughly 25% are in India. For these people, life comes to a standstill after dusk. Inadequate lighting is not only an impediment to progress and development opportunities, but also has a direct impact on the health, environment, and safety of millions of people, as they are forced to light their homes with kerosene lamps, dung cakes, firewood, and crop residue after sunset. 

Recognizing the need to change this, TERI with its commitment to creating innovative solutions for a better tomorrow, has undertaken since 2007 an initiative of 'Lighting a Billion Lives' (LaBL) through the use of solar lighting devices to replace kerosene lamps and paraffin candles, and thereby providing opportunities for livelihoods both at the individual and village level. Indeed bringing clean and affordable sources of lighting into the lives of people facilitates education of children, provides better illumination and kerosene-smoke-free indoor environment for women to do household chores, and has many environmental and socio-economic co-benefits. Currently there are around 47,080 solar lanterns in use covering 930 villages across 16 States in India, and including 500 lanterns in Myanmar. This has provided lighting to 235,400 lives, with prospects of many more in progress. The campaign is being implemented according to a necessity index that has been developed for each state in India.
LaBL targets all communities across the world that lack access to modern and clean sources of lighting. Through this campaign, local entrepreneur-driven delivery channels are created for distribution and servicing of solar lanterns to rural communities, for whom kerosene is the predominant fuel for lighting—not only in households but also in small enterprises such as shops, local bazaars, tuition and coaching centers, and cottage industries. Typically, a village youth, elder or teacher, and preferably a woman, is selected to become the local entrepreneur. She is trained and becomes responsible for day-to-day operations of the solar charging station. She then rents out the solar lanterns to the villagers every evening at a modest and affordable price thereby disseminating the advantages and generating awareness about the usage of solar lanterns.

LaBL has since 2007 been developed to benefit many more people around the world. It is now in the process of expanding to the African continent, with pilot projects in Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, Uganda, Malawi, Kenya, Ethiopia and Mozambique. TERI and Planetworkshops are joining hands in the endeavor of also bringing LaBL into the lives of the villagers of Niger.

For more information, please visit: http://labl.teriin.org/