A serene yet jarring scene that lends a 19th-century feel

February 19, 2015 10:44 AM

What's It Like To Live Without Electricity? Ask An Indian Villager One study has found that India’s indoor pollution contributes to disabilities and early death to a greater degree than tobacco, high blood pressure and heart attacks. “It disproportionately impacts those who are indoors a lot, which is women and children”

Related links:

India’s electricity problems: An area of darkness

Electricity Crisis in India a website dedicated to describing "...the prevailing crisis of electricity in India..." (not recently updated -- this problem has been on-going for decades).

posted by Michele in California (7 comments total)

Imagine living in a world with little or no light when the sun set. That’s the plight of an estimated 300 million Indians

As always it's a startling juxtaposition when something that is a serious problem in the Third World is something that many people in the First World would kill for.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 10:57 AM on February 19, 2015

I don't think many First Worlders want this. They want a First World version where electricity is available but pleasantly controlled.

Just like many people living in big developed cities have this romantic notion of an idyllic, bucolic farming life but probably wouldn't enjoy the realities of subsistence farming existence.
posted by Sangermaine at 11:04 AM on February 19, 2015 [5 favorites]

I was referring specifically to the lack of light pollution after dark. I agree that electricity is a First World must.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 3:28 PM on February 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

> As always it's a startling juxtaposition when something that is a serious problem in the Third World is something that many people in the First World would kill for.
>I was referring specifically to the lack of light pollution after dark. I agree that electricity is a First World must.

FTA:

…six decades after India’s independence, kerosene still illuminates the houses with a light so dim he says it discourages anyone from learning to read.…

…Baburam says fumes from kerosene and wood burning indoors “burn our eyes” and “we cannot breathe.” Kerosene fires and explosions are well-documented.…

…According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “exposure to indoor air pollution” as a result of smoke from burning animal or vegetable matter is estimated to cause more than a half a million premature deaths a year in India.…

…One study has found that India’s indoor pollution contributes to disabilities and early death to a greater degree than tobacco, high blood pressure and heart attacksFarmer Papu Singh, 28, says more than one family has turned down his proposal for marriage. The brooding bachelor asks, “Who wants to marry a poor man” in a place with no power?…

Doesn't sound like a "First World must" to me, sounds like something the local residents urgently want and need.
posted by Lexica at 5:44 PM on February 19, 2015

Doesn't sound like a "First World must" to me, sounds like something the local residents urgently want and need.

Umm, I don't think I was implying that it wasn't?
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:34 PM on February 19, 2015

It makes me want to send solar lights and solar panels, though I have no idea how one would do that. and rocket stoves.
posted by theora55 at 9:52 AM on February 20, 2015

There could be a moveable solar light fixture in every house on Earth, and a small solar water pump, with fresnel lenses there could be heat neutral light in every house. The power producers that be want us all on a billable grid. Solar lights should already be so ubiquitous in this world that no one would bother stealing them, but noooo!
posted by Oyéah at 7:55 PM on February 20, 2015