Do solar study lamps help children study at night? Evidence from rural India

• Published in: Energy for sustainable development Vol. 50; pp. 109 - 116
• Main Authors: Sharma, Rohit, Choudhary, Deepak, Kumar, Praveen, Venkateswaran, Jayendran, Solanki, Chetan Singh
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01.06.2019
• Subjects: Kerosene; Purposive random sampling; Rural India; Solar study lamp; Total study time; Rural India; Solar study lamp; Total study time; Kerosene; Purposive random sampling
• ISSN: 0973-0826
• DOI: 10.1016/j.esd.2019.03.005

Lack of adequate and consistent lighting has a detrimental impact on the overall well-being of poor households in India. For school-going children in these households, this challenge has contributed to issues such as difficulty in studying after dark, reduced performance in schools, increased dropout from school due to poor educational outcomes, and exposure to pernicious emissions from predominantly kerosene-burning wick lamps. Use of off-grid solar lamps in these poor households has the potential to address these challenges. There is limited research investigating the impact of solar lamps on school going children in rural India. We analyzed the data collected from the Million Solar Urja Lamp Program (MSP) implemented in four states of India. The survey of 873 rural poor households in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Odisha utilized a purposive random sampling method to reveal that the use of solar lamps increased total study time (TST) per day during dark hours from 88 to 118 min in the impact period. Furthermore, enhancement in study time was found more for girls (32 min/day) than boys (27 min/day). Total kerosene expenditures in these households decreased from 0.94 US$ to 0.67 US$ per month while total electricity expenditures dropped from 3.7 US$ to 3.5 US$ per month. The findings shows that number of rooms, household head's education, and the child's class have a positive and significant influence on TST in dark hours at home. A notable observation was that the use of kerosene-burning lighting during the impact period shows a negative correlation with TST in dark hours as compared to baseline period due to the adoption of solar study lamps. The results also show that with increment in studying time, a large number of children moved from lower study time group to moderate and higher study time group. •Impact of solar lamp dissemination among children of poor households.•Analyzed the data collected from the Million Solar Urja Lamp Program (MSP) implemented in four states of India.•Use of solar lamps increased total study time per day of children.•Total kerosene and electricity expenditures in the households decreased.•With increment in studying time, a large number of children moved from lower to moderate and higher study time group.