Another SELCO Story - The Siddhi Community

Yesterday at work we had an Innovation Workshop, and trust me we had a tough time picking which projects to present as there are so many that involve innovations at various levels, product, financial, approach, collections, so many. That's the super interesting thing about SELCO, the focus on what and how best to customize to reach the outliers who typically get left behind by the system, rather than how to scale to reach the masses. Yet another level of 'focus on the user'

One of those stories is of the Siddhi Community:

The Siddhis are originally from South-East Africa and were brought to the Indian subcontinent as slaves by the Portuguese merchants between the 16th and 19th Centuries. After independence, apparently some went back to their own lands and many migrated into the forests of Karnataka.

Today, the Siddhis here live a rather secluded life and are fairly 'backward' educationally, socially, and financially. They live in real remote areas as there is a high level of discrimination they face from the locals on account of their different racial features and color ( and Indians complain of racism). 

Their livelihood centers around forest based activities like selling arecanut , de-husking forest products, honey and basket weaving. They still follow the barter system ( actually until SELCO happened and introduced them to the banking system and access to finance, but as Harish said, we don't know for good or bad :) ) .

Kerosene was their only source of fuel for lighting, and even for that they had to travel really far to the nearest access point, spending a lot of time and a good chunk of their earnings

The local branch manager was telling us how it took them two years from 2009 to 2011, to just earn the trust of the community, and then to convince the local bankers to extend loans to them. 

It's still an ongoing process that started in 2011, but now 59 of the households have a 2 bulb system installed. Each system costs Rs.8500 and it takes each household around 4 years to repay that loan. The total loan now is around Rs. 5 lakh and to convince the bank to sanction the loan, SELCO had to initially put in an amount equal to the loan as fixed deposit, and over the years, as the repayments were regular and their credit worthiness increased, the deposit amount needed have now come down to lower and lower levels. They now have 47 systems in Yellapur, 11 in Hunnashettykoppa and 1 in Umachagi. 

The Solar Panel on one of the huts

The reaction of one of the users ' It's like having sunlight by night' ( closer to the truth than regular electricity is huh?)

And some of the other impacts mentioned were, their being able to use their evenings for more income generating activities such as basket weaving, areca nut dehusking which in turn increases income levels, womenfolk no longer having to endure kerosene fumes while cooking, higher level of 

protection from the many many insects and reptiles in the area, as its deep forest and high rainfall, children doing better at school, and finally financial inclusion.

Yet another validation of the basic tenets of SELCO,  breaking the myths that a) the poor cannot afford sustainable technologies b) the poor cannot maintain sustainable technologies. The Siddhi community, with that little initial help, has done and built on both.