Project title- ?Scaling up of a proven grassroots innovation: Energy Efficient Community Chulha for Anganwadies and schools, (Idukki dt Kerala)?. The project intends to demonstrate and scale up proven grassroots innovation ?energy efficient community Chulha? among the remote schools and anganwadies of Idukki district for meeting the energy needs for mid day meals and other cooking needs.
Energy efficient Chulha is a national award winning innovation developed by a grassroots innovator V Jayapraksh. The innovation has won national award from National Innovation Foundation in 2011 and got several appreciations from the scientific community..
The technology has been tested and validated by IIT Guwahati, ANERT and IRTC and observed a thermal efficiency of 29 to 35% as against 17% in ordinary smoke less community Chulha and recommended for wide scale adoption and replication. The specialty is the secondary burning system which will burn the un-burnt hydrocarbon coming out with the smoke/exhaust. Due to proper combustion of biomass; the Chulha results less smoke and consume less fuel.
The community Chulha developed by Jayaprakash is ideally suited for schools, anganwadies, college hostels , panchayats (for waste disposal) and other community purposes. The proposed project intends to introduce this energy efficient community Chulhas in selected schools and anganwadies of Idukki district with the objective of making their cooking economical , thus saving tons of fire wood and providing pollution free atmosphere and contributing to carbon saving.
It has been observed that introduction of this low cost innovation will reduce the expenses of food preparation in school and anganwadies more than 30 %. Recent a study conducted by the core scientists of Peermade Development Society indicated that more than 43 % of the expenses for the midday meals are spent for fuel cost , labor, transportation, and this makes mid programme highly unsustainable and results in extra burden to teachers and PTA. They are facing extreme difficulty in getting firewood, especially in the rainy season.
Project goal- The proposed project intends to demonstrate and scale up proven grassroots innovation ?energy efficient community chulha ? among the remote schools and anganwadies of idukki district for meeting the energy needs for mid day meals and other cooking needs.
Project objectives-
? To make mid day meal programme economical by reducing the consumption of firewood.
? To reduce the drudgery of women and to provide pollution free and smoke free atmosphere for cooking.
? To demonstrate the needs and efficacy of grassroots innovations for meeting the local needs.
? To sensitize various stakeholders the prospects and potentialities of grassroots innovation for possible policy support and further replication.
? To collect the feedback of end users for participatory technology development.
Project activities-
? Selection of schools and anganwadies.
? Formation of project implementing committee comprising of PTA members for implementation and monitoring.
? Mobilizing beneficiaries? contribution.
? Training in the construction.
? Establishing energy efficient community Chulha
? Training on usage, maintenance and repair of Chulha.
? Participatory monitoring
? Demonstration & Training to local bodies and other stakeholders for replication
? Impact Study