Women's role in technology has been largely overlooked, says Lalitha Balakrishnan of All India Women’s Conference (AIWC), pointing out the significance of women to promoting renewable energy and reducing carbon footprint. She believes that there is enough evidence to show that supporting women’s own innovation abilities could be a rich source of improving renewable energy technologies, while at the same time increasing women’s own capabilities and confidence.
In a radio series for the Indian Vigyan Prasar, she says that there is a stereo type that women are not technologists and that they are not capable (even when provided with appropriate support) of building, operating and maintaining sophisticated technologies. Women, she says, experience a number of constraints in their involvement of technology, including women’s indigenous technology innovations, often highly sophisticated, not being considered as real “science”.
She advocates involving women in the technical know-how of using bio‐gas, solar devices and improved chulhas, and also be economically independent.
Mrs. Balakrishnan said that the mindset of not including women in decision making related to energy has to be changed. Women are the worst affected by energy scarcity and related environmental degradation as per the findings of World Renewable Energy Congress (held in Florence Italy). This makes it imperative to involve women in decision making related to energy as renewable energy must be applied in a culturally sensitive way, keeping the needs of women in mind.
Balakrishnan points out that as energy consumers and beneficiaries, women have contributed to design of household’s energy technologies and projects. Improved stoves programmes have been more effective and produced more benefit when they have obtained women input to produce the same and have targeted marketing and credit to women and men as appropriate.
As micro entrepreneurs, women have used renewable energy to increase profits and efficiency in their informal sector enterprises and have proven themselves capable of operating and also constructing renewable energy technologies on their own, when provided with appropriate training and support. Women may be effective renewable energy entrepreneurs due to their experience as users of energy in households and their own enterprises; in some countries including India, women are already marketing solar home systems successfully, she says.
As extension workers and caretakers, women have been effective in operation and maintenance roles of biogas, hydro electric and solar installations.
Balakrishnan argues that as leaders, networkers and lobbyist women have successfully influenced energy policy decisions at the local, national and international levels. "Women do not necessarily help to build, operate or maintain renewable energy installations alone, more important is that women have a role in determining the use and benefits of the projects and in managing these arrangements and they receive and control benefits."
Says Balakrishnan, "Though Indian women have participated in energy intensive micro enterprises, they have done so in their free time and only with the motive of adding on to the family income. But even the projects of RETS that are aimed at women have not had the desired effect due to lack of resources such as cultural and economic setbacks."
She says that the challenge lies in involving more women and transforming them into energy entrepreneurs since they are the one who will benefit the most from improved cookstoves, biogas and vermi composting, amongst other renewable energy technologies.
She recounts that the improved cook stoves program started in eighties was designated as a ‘program for women by women’. Says Balakrishnan, "The All India Women’s Conference implemented the National Program of Improved Chulhas (NPIC) after being identified as a nodal agency. More than one lakh improved chulhas were constructed through 1000 self employed women. AIWC’s Andhra Pradesh Branch Guntur Mahila Samajam is implementing this program till today in tribal areas."
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