Impact of Solar Entrepreneurship on Women Empowerment in Rural India

Background and Purpose: Energy access provides employment and education opportunities, which leads to community well-being. Prior studies have shown that involving women in local businesses increases the adoption and sustained use of clean energy adoption and use, particularly in poor communities. We developed and implemented a local solar lamp project to provide hands-on technical and management training to rural women in four states of India. We trained these rural women to assemble, distribute, and repair solar lamps in their communities. At the end of the project, women were encouraged to start local solar shops where they could sell and repair solar technologies in their communities. Limited studies demonstrate that solar entrepreneurship increases empowerment among rural women. Our research examined: 1) if the three measures of women empowerment - assertiveness, satisfaction, and decision-making ability change over time and 2) what are the socioeconomic predictors of assertiveness, satisfaction, and decision-making ability among the women entrepreneurs in the study. Conceptually, social learning theory and diffusion of innovations theory inform this study.

Methodology: We randomly selected 29 blocks in the four states where we deployed the solar lamp project. We conducted baseline and three follow-up surveys with the study participants in local languages. We analyzed longitudinal data of 313 women project employees from Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh in India. We regressed the three women’s empowerment measures—the level of satisfaction, assertiveness, and decision-making ability –on their demographics (age, state, family size, caste, education, income), skills, and occupation.

Findings: Age, skills, and income had a positive and significant relationship with the assertiveness of women providers. Skills learned during the solar lamp project were positively associated with assertiveness. Age and skills had a positive and significant association with women's decision-making ability. Decision-making has a negative and significant relationship with family size. Women who worked on the solar lamp project exhibited significantly higher decision-making ability than those working in agriculture. The study also demonstrated that the participants' decision-making improved over time. Income, education, and working as solar entrepreneurs had a positive association with satisfaction. The marginal effect on assertiveness, satisfaction, and decision-making varied across states. The satisfaction level was higher than assertiveness and decision-making in all four states. However, assertiveness was highest in Bihar, while lowest in Assam. Decision-making was highest in Jharkhand and lowest in Bihar. The satisfaction level of women was highest in Assam and lowest in Jharkhand.

Conclusion and Implications: Women’s presence in the supply side of the energy sector is envisioned to bring faster adoption of clean energy. The results of this study underscore the interconnections of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 (women empowerment) and SDG 7 (access to clean energy). The study also demonstrates skill-building through technology programs in empowering women. Systematic initiatives to empower women to be energy entrepreneurs in rural communities could contribute to addressing energy poverty.