Women-led decentralised renewable energy and India’s last-mile transition

India’s energy transition is being celebrated in gigawatts and grid connections, but these numbers hide a harder truth: for millions of rural women, reliable energy is still the difference between safety and fear, income and drudgery, life and death, care and career. Electrification has expanded, yet energy inequality persists. Women still cook in smoke-filled kitchens, walk through unlit roads vulnerable to safety concerns, and depend on underpowered infrastructure and services, especially during emergencies. If India’s clean energy push continues to treat women only as end-users rather than leaders or designers of solutions, it risks replicating and reinforcing the same inequities in a greener form. The real test of a just energy transition is not how much renewable energy we produce, but who controls it, who earns from it, and who decides how it is used. Women-led decentralised renewable energy offers a radical but practical shift, turning rural women from last-mile consumers into energy entrepreneurs, system managers, and climate leaders, while unlocking inclusive growth for rural India.

The National Landscape: From connectivity to reliability

India’s energy trajectory has reached a pivotal juncture, transitioning from the challenge of basic household connectivity to the more complex requirement of quality and reliability of supply. While the Saubhagya scheme successfully achieved near-universal electrification (~99.99%), a significant gap remains in the consistency of power, especially in rural regions. To address this, the national policy ecosystem has shifted towards Decentralised Renewable Energy (DRE), recognising it as a strategic priority for meeting the nation’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2070. Key national initiatives such as PM-KUSUM target the solarisation of agricultural pumps, while the PM Surya Ghar programme aims to establish 10,000 solar villages by 2030. Furthermore, the Gram Urja Swaraj Abhiyan promotes panchayat-level self-sufficiency in energy. This landscape is increasingly supported by the private sector through green credits and alliances built on the “samaj-bazar-sarkar” triad, integrating community ownership (samaj) with market innovation (bazar) and government policy (sarkar). However, despite these advancements, the full potential of DRE remains untapped without the central involvement of women, who are often the primary managers of household energy.

Chhattisgarh: The frontier for DRE, SHGs, and panchayats

Chhattisgarh presents a unique geographical and social landscape for DRE implementation. Approximately 44% of the State is covered by forests, making the extension of the central grid to remote tribal habitations in the Bastar and Surguja divisions economically and technically challenging. In response, the State has launched “Anjor Vision 2047”, a strategic roadmap to increase the renewable energy share to 66% by 2047. The Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA) has pioneered this transition, managing thousands of solar pumps and solarising more than 1,432 health centres. The institutional backbone for scaling these efforts exists within the State’s social fabric. Chhattisgarh has a network of approximately 2.7 lakh Self-Help Groups (SHGs) under the Bihan (CGSRLM) mission and 11,065 panchayats. These local bodies are increasingly integrated into energy planning through Village Poverty Reduction Plans, and Gram Panchayat Development Plans, ensuring that energy demands are identified at the grassroots level.

The gaps: Why “women-led DRE” is a researcher’s imperative

The “reliability deficit” in Chhattisgarh reveals a stark multidimensional poverty landscape. Empirical evidence shows that 17% of rural households still lack reliable electricity, while 70% depend on traditional biomass for cooking. This reliance has multidimensional consequences. In terms of health and nutrition, indoor air pollution from biomass causes approximately 2,00,000 premature deaths annually in India, primarily among women and children. In the education space, as highlighted in contexts similar to ASER findings, a lack of clean energy restricts the study hours of girls after sunset, reinforcing existing gender inequalities. Women already burdened with drudgery and safety concerns spend an average of three to four hours daily collecting fuelwood, a task that limits their time for rest, education, or income-generating activities. A didi from a forest-fringe village of Chimai says, “The absence of reliable lighting poses safety risks, including wild animal attacks, which severely restricts the mobility of women after dark.” With SHG meetings, farm work, cooking, cleaning, and care work, women are the last to benefit. Women are also underrepresented in the clean energy workforce, at approximately 11% in India compared to 32% globally. This “time poverty” underscores why transitioning women from passive consumers to active leaders in the energy sector is not just a social goal but a technical necessity.

What is women-led DRE and the pathways to implementation

Women-led DRE is a model that positions women as designers, owners, operators, and decision-makers of decentralised energy systems. This vision is being codified through Chhattisgarh’s proposed Women Led DRE policy, which aims to establish 5,000 women-led DRE solutions and create 50,000 green jobs by 2030.

The pathways to achieving this include:

• Policy ecosystem by design: Facilitating women’s participation by making them primary owners of energy assets, similar to the model used in the Ujjwala Yojana for LPG.
• Public investments for the private sector: Using public funds to de-risk private sector investments in women-led enterprises, such as solar-powered food processing or cold storage.
• Non-traditional technical roles: Training a cadre of “Solar Didis” or “Oorja Sakhis”, women technicians who provide last-mile operations and maintenance services, reducing system downtime and creating dignified local employment.
• Productive use of energy (PURE): Enhancing income by providing affordable energy access to women-led institutions for milling, oil expelling, and silk reeling.
• Panchayat governance: Empowering local panchayats to provide land and use Own Source Revenue (OSR) to partner with women-led collectives for delivering “Energy-as-a-Service”.

The road ahead: Green credits and economic sovereignty

Looking ahead, the scale of women-led DRE offers transformative potential for India’s green economy. The Samaj-Sarkar-Bazar framework ensures community ownership backed by government subsidies and market-driven efficiency. Based on typical capital costs for decentralised solar in India (~₹5 crore per MW for small and distributed systems), achieving 500 MW of decentralised renewable capacity in Chhattisgarh could mobilise investment of the order of ₹2,500 crore. Decentralised solar generates approximately 24.5 full-time equivalent jobs per MW, offering significant opportunities for local job creation in rural areas. Furthermore, women-led projects can tap into emerging green credit markets, generating revenue through carbon emission reductions.

Anecdotes from the field reflect this hope.

A didi from Kanker observes, “Our sarpanch didi showed us how solar can run Anganwadis, schools, and even irrigation for vegetables, giving us food and security and more time with our kids”. By placing the tools of energy production in the hands of women, India can ensure a just transition that finally turns the “last mile” into the front line of progress.

Niharika Barik Singh is the Principal Secretary, Panchayat and Rural Development, Government of Chhattisgarh, and Neeraja Kudrimoti, Associate Director, Climate Action, Transforming Rural India Foundation.