They are street singers, labourers, street vendors,
waste collectors and others who carry out various informal occupations.
This is Kanbargi slum of Belgavi, Karnataka. The community of more than 200 households
is extremely vulnerable due to the volatile nature of their jobs. Semi-permanent residential
location as a slum leading to poor accessibility to basic services like health, sanitation
and education.
CELCO helped to establish an integrated energy centre to cater to the basic energy needs
of the community. The IEC is a solar-powered community centre that hosts a range of basic
services and activities including lighting, mobile charging and charged batteries in an
underserved community. CELCO teamed up with Mahesh Foundation, an NGO that works with
children and youth who identified the slum due to its backwardness.
Mahesh Foundation is responsible for mobilising the community and CELCO provided the technical
support for the establishment of the IEC.
The operator of the IEC was nominated by the community and the partner and is responsible
for distributing the lights to the customers and collections.
An added conditionality for renting the lights from the IEC is, enrolment and continued attendance
of the customers' children in the local school.
Services extended by the IEC includes, a weekly health clinic where a doctor visits for free
checkups and medicines and an Anganwadi centre that offers a basic literacy programme.
An audiovisual centre is established to further its community education programme following
an increased participation from the residents. CELCO had approached Syndicate Bank who agreed
to finance its initiatives through allocations from its corporate social responsibility funds
on the request of Syndicate Bank. CELCO and Mahesh Foundation conducted a bank account
opening drive in the slum, ensuring financial inclusion. Today, almost all houses here have
opened bank accounts through this. The IEC is not just about providing lights,
but also enabling people to pay for it and open up other financing opportunities for
the poor. A community-based energy centre has become an entry point in improving living
conditions in a slum and opening opportunities for the community to access basic services.
