Students Bring Electricity To Neglected Village

What started as a pleasure trip for students of a medical college ended in a mission to bring electricity to the village that the students visited. The students of SMS Medical College in Jaipur on their Diwali trip to Rajghat village in Dholpur district of Rajasthan noticed that the people were leading a difficult life. The village situated on the banks of the Chambal river lacked basic facilities. This New Year, through the students’ efforts, light finally shone on Rajghat, that too powered by solar energy. Deepu Nishad, a 33-year-old villager of Rajghat with four children said that they had not seen an electric light in the village. They used kerosene lamps at night, but now,  thanks to the medical students’ efforts, solar lights have been installed that enable their children to study at night. It took a lot of dedication from the students to achieve their goal. They roped in NGOs and businessmen to install solar lights in the village with 50-odd houses. A bicycle was installed to store power in batteries. During cloudy days, villagers can 'cycle' for an hour to generate enough power to charge lights at four houses. The village did not witness a single marriage in the last ten years because of the ‘blackout’. Parents were wary of marrying off their daughters to men in the village as it did not have electricity, piped water or proper roads. They had to drink water from the Chambal river which was filthy. Ashwani Parashar, a medical student said that hey didn’t find any scheme of the government on the ground, be it roads, light, water or medical services. The students then ran a campaign, with the hashtag #SaveRajghat. They also wrote to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) that directed the state chief secretary to look into the matter.