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Energy Services for the Urban Poor: NGO Participation in Slum Electrification in India

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  • Bipasha Baruah

    (International Studies Program, California State University, Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Boulevard, Long Beach, CA 90840, USA)

Abstract

Some 40% of the world's urban poor—living predominantly in informal settlements—lack access to legal electricity. Urban upgradation programmes, if they exist, prioritize water supply over electrification since water is nonsubstitutable and more essential for sustaining human life. Illegal electricity—albeit unreliable, expensive and dangerous—is also already widely available in informal settlements. I share the experiences of the Self-Employed Women's Association and Saath —two nongovermental organizations (NGOs) based in India—of participating in a multiple-stakeholder propoor electrification programme. By 2008 close to 100 000 homes had been electrified in the city of Ahmedabad and the programme is currently being replicated in smaller cities in Gujarat and in the neighbouring state of Rajasthan. I use academic literature on urban infrastructure provision and politics, project reports and evaluations, pricing surveys, and interviews with electricity utility and NGO staff to analyze the programme for its impacts upon access, tariffs, consumption patterns, quality of service, and security of land tenure. The findings indicate that NGOs can be very effective as intermediaries between utilities, municipalities, and urban poor communities. However, scaling up such programmes will require strong state involvement in developing a policy framework to facilitate NGO participation in the design and implementation of propoor electrification activities, and in the energy reform process in general.

Suggested Citation

  • Bipasha Baruah, 2010. "Energy Services for the Urban Poor: NGO Participation in Slum Electrification in India," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 28(6), pages 1011-1027, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:28:y:2010:i:6:p:1011-1027
    DOI: 10.1068/c0948
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ioannis N. Kessides, 2004. "Reforming Infrastructure : Privatization, Regulation, and Competition," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13525.
    2. Stephen Graham, 2000. "Constructing premium network spaces: reflections on infrastructure networks and contemporary urban development," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(1), pages 183-200, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Narayanan, Sriharini & Rajan, A. Thillai & Jebaraj, Paul & Elayaraja, M.S., 2017. "Delivering basic infrastructure services to the urban poor: a meta-analysis of the effectiveness of bottom-up approaches," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 50-62.
    2. Aklin, Michaël & Bayer, Patrick & Harish, S.P. & Urpelainen, Johannes, 2015. "Quantifying slum electrification in India and explaining local variation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 203-212.

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