Design For Rural India: Opportunity Mapping for Industrial Design Interventions of PIPV Products, Design and Development of PIPV
4.3 Preliminary Field Studies, Direct Observations and User Interviews
4.3.1 Field Studies to Villages in Maharashtra
The following three villages, viz. Deothan, Sarole Pathar and Shendi village of Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra state, were selected for the field study considering familiarity with the local Marathi language and personal contacts of people in these villages. The purpose of the field visits is to gain first-hand experience of the everyday work-life of the local villagers in a rural setting and to study and make direct observation of the actual scenario of the use of products and services that address and meet their everyday needs.
Interviewing Observing Exploring
Interview Protocol is used to interview people about their daily activities, social aspirations and associated issues. We tried to understand their activities which are electricity dependent and what are the associated constraints.
Being the best possible way, we observed people doing their various activities. We tried to understand why and how they do these activities.
Observations are recorded to interpret the results for further study.
Detail exploration is done in few agriculture and household
activities. This helped us to empathize with the people associated with those activities.
Figure 4.8 Location of Shendi, Sarole pathar and Deothan villages on the map
Visit to Shendi Village, Maharashtra
It is observed that most people living in Shendi village are involved in agricultural activities and are dependent on water from a nearby water stream. Most farmers have small segments of land where they grow paddy from the water source nearby. People engage in works like road construction during the year's non-harvesting time. They do not have farming tools like tractors and harvesters and mostly depend on conventional farming techniques. Most houses we observed managed everyday household activities in the absence of electricity.
Figure 4.9. show images of village activities captured during a field visit to Shendi village.
Figure 4.9 Top Left- People engaged in road construction work during the spare time of year, Top right- Small segments of land are used as paddy fields, Bottom left- Typical village house in Maharashtra. Bottom right- Conventional farming techniques.
Most villagers in Shendi village use firewood for cooking as it is an economical and readily available source. Most of them have to do the cooking outdoors as it causes the problem of smoke accumulation inside the house due to lack of ventilation. The village market in Shendi is crowded, and the available electric supply is limited to the nearby area. Remotely located houses on the foothills and some distance from the village centre do not have electricity connections. Local transportation to the nearby town is hampered by infrequent public transport buses. People often travel in overcrowded vehicles that carry passengers over the seating capacity, as shown in figure 4.10.
Figure 4.10 Top left: overcapacity public transport at shendi village. Top right: discussion with villagers and farmers at shendi village.
Field Visit to Deothan Village
At Deothan village, we observed that most villagers are dependent on agricultural and allied activities. They do various activities through conventional farming techniques.
Heavy machinery and equipment are used on a shared rental basis by the local community.
Zilla Parishad schools are located in villages where children pursue their pre-primary, primary and secondary education. School activities are also hampered due to electricity- dependent issues. Lack of basic facilities of lighting and fans are prominently witnessed.
Activities of a night school run for people - who cannot attend it during the daytime due to farm work - suffer due to poor electricity supply.
Figure 4.11 Conversation with villagers at Deothan village
During our conversation with community members in the village, they expressed the view that for these community initiatives' success and effective outcomes, there is a need for a reliable alternative source of electric supply for lighting, water purification, and extending services with digital learning tools for the community.
Figure 4.12 shows observations at Deothan village, located near Deothan dam on Adhala river in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra state. The photo documents clearly indicate that conventional farming techniques with machines and tools are used for agriculture, water and pumping needs in the fields.
Figure 4.12 Top Left- Famers using bullock plough for land preparation, Bottom left- Local water reservoirs, Top right – tractor manoeuvring through farmland, Bottom right- land preparation in progress.
Field Visit to Sarole Pathar Village
At Sarole Pathar village, the researcher visited a farmer who had installed a solar PV powered solar pump for his farm to gather information about the farmer's experiences after installing this PV system. In the interview, the farmer stated that frequent power cuts and the excessively high electricity charges, on the one hand, and the attractive government subsidy on the PV powered solar pump was the motivation behind his decision to install the PIPV based pumping system. For this PV operated 5 HP pump, the overall investment cost for the complete system was INR Five lacs. Of this total cost, he invested INR One lac and the balance of INR Four lacs he received in subsidies and grants from the scheme under the concerned government department. This scenario shows the high cost of the solar PV system and the need for considerable economic support from the government or external organizations to make the system affordable for farmers. The system comprises installing nearly forty solar panels to generate the required electricity to power the water pump, making the system very bulky. Figure 4.13 shows the actual size of the system installed near the water well of the farmer.
Figure 4.13 Top left -Solar PV powered water pumping system in Sarole Pathar Village.
Top right- Discussion with the farmer (owner of the system) to get the system's information. Bottom left-system with water well. Bottom right - system specifications.
After discussing with the farmer, we found that he was pleased with the system and its performance. The pumping system was very efficient and without any maintenance and operating costs. Every villager wanted to get it, but they could not afford it because of the high capital investment.
The field visit to Sarole Pathar village and observation of this system helped identify the primary requirement of electricity-dependent water pumping for agriculture as one among the critical agricultural rural activities.
4.3.2 Field studies on Villages Kynmynsaw and Kynbah villages of Mawsynram