About Project Chirag
www.projectchirag.com
India’s heart beats in its villages. An estimated 70% of its population lives in rural India. Yet the divide between the India that Goldman Sachs called a BRIC nation and the India that Indians call Bharat is painfully real. 72,000 villages with approximately 400 million Indians do not have access to power in any form. Their day ends when the sun goes down.
Students from HR College started an initiative to light up 33 villages in 8 months providing light to 1000 rural houses in Maharashtra. If a group of 30 students could create this impact, one wondered what magic could be created if this initiative enveloped more students into its fold. This saw the evolution of Project Chirag into the “Chirag Light India Movement”. Students from the age 12 upwards joined hands and pledged their vision of “Light for All”. To initiate the movement, students took on the challenge to light up another 1000 rural houses, and this time, in just a month and not only in Maharashtra. It was amazing to see the energy and conviction in these young students that made this seemingly impossible dream a reality. In just one year, students have been able to mobilize Rupees 1 crore to light up 68 villages impacting 2100 households across Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka!! Sounds incredible, but that is what the collective power of the youth is capable of doing. It is not about talking, it’s about doing. It’s not about problems, it’s about solving them. It’s not about having vision, it is about putting dates to those visions and making them goals. It is finally about contributing that small drop towards making “India Shining” in the true sense.
