The PowerCuts.IN Blog

September 16, 2011: This is the house of Mr. Sukhdev from Karcha Village, Banda, Uttar Pradesh where I had a chance  to visit during one of my work visits.

In this report we hear Sukhdev highlight the following key points: [link to report]

1. When the transformer at their village burns out and needs repairing, unless they pool in money to pay to the district electricity department, they do not get a replacement. Which technically seems to be a bribe.
2. The load on these transformers is high since many people use wire tap to the source lines to draw electricity to their homes even without a connection, which adds extra load on the transformer beyond its capacity due to which it fires and goes bad.
3. They have electricity for around 10 hours mostly only during the nights when the transformers are working.
4. Due to electricity, his kids can study during the dark for a couple of hours.
5. Using fans, when there is power helps them to get rid of mosquitoes & diseases caused by them during summers.
6. When there is no electricity during the night its scary because of threat of theft in the village.

You can view the video here with English subtitles below: [YouTube link]

When the site was initially started, it just had one vague purpose “to crowdsource data: duration, frequency, type (planned/unplanned), about power cuts in India”. Gradually a lot of ideas started popping in on what else can be done on the open document and emails, twitter. Slowly it became clear that there should be a specific focus and objectives of any such info-activism project. After observing the project through these months and allowing it to develop organically and take its own shape, I have come up with these thoughts which should be our focus for the project and I seek your comments on this:

In my opinion, any Citizen Media driven project has these core components and purpose:

1. News is contributed by the citizens by use of various forms of media.
2. Voices of the citizens are given a platform to be heard globally and escalated.
3. Is for the sole purpose of “public interest”.
4. Acts as a platform for the citizens to connect, envision, communicate and act about issues relevant to them.

The purpose of PowerCuts.IN:

1. Escalating Unheard Voices: Highlight the power cut issue in India by escalating community reported news.
   We got a report from Sector 7, Channi Himmat, Jammu (see report) just after few days since the site was launched. Gradually observing the media reports and the areas it covers in terms of reporting electricity problems, I barely have found them reporting anything beyond urban/semi-urban power problems.
2. Awareness & Accountability: Spreading information about what the government is doing, latest happenings in the Energy Sector and making the tax payer aware.
   During my journeys in rural India, especially in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Jharkhand I have found that lack of electricity/power outage is a major problem there. Then one day I came across the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyudikaran Yojana (Rural Electricity Scheme) with a common minimum goal of providing electricity to all households in 5 years. I couldn’t see it working in the areas I went or maybe I needed to dig more and compare with what government reports and the real situation on the ground.
3. Identifying Problems: For e.g. Citizens can report power theft if they witness it or their electricity usage patterns and then compare with supply in their area.
   There are other problems than just demand, supply for e.g. power theft, usage patterns etc.
4. Accessibility: Making it easy for people to report data using various mediums and publishing data in open, accessible formats.
   Having various mediums of reporting: like Voice(phone call), SMS, Internet, Mobile Apps the objective of the project is to be able to reach out to the maximum possible masses and enable effective citizen media reporting. Since the data/information on the site is citizen generated, it is also provided back to the public in open accessible formats with a non restrictive license.

I wrote a project plan a few months back (here) and would be iterating on that in the coming days. Please feel free to provide your comments and suggestions here or over email to me or by joining our mailing list.

It all began on Twitter: [Refer]

• May 4 2011 03:13 PM – @netra tweets “Power Cut! #santacruz #Mumbai”
• May 4 2011 03:15 PM – @nixxin replies “If Delhi-NCR started tweeting power cuts like this, it would trend in India all year”
• May 4 2011 03:17 PM – @shefaly replied “May be you guys SHOULD tweet #powercut with location. The infographic will highlight the need for investment. To many people.”
• May 4 2011 03:25 PM – @nixxin sends out a call “Please Tweet if there’s a power cut in your area in India this summer; Someone can map it. Format <area> #powercutindia (idea frm @shefaly)”
• May 4 2011 03:37 PM – @ajuonline asks @nixxin ”where will this mapped?”
• May 4 2011 03:41 PM – @ajuonline replies to @nixxin “I am setting up the site. It should be up in 5 :)”
• Site setup by @ajuonline precisely at May 04, 2011 15:41.

Screenshot: http://wiki.ictd.asia/images/7/7e/Powercutindia-history.jpg

With the power of some geeky skills by me @ajuonline (devoting time, code, server space etc) and power of free and open source software Ushahidi, a simple tool for Crowdsourcing Location based information.

The project was started without any definite purpose and direction and purely bv volunteer efforts. It has slowly evolved into what you see on the site now as a result of, as people tell me, ”design thinking” and “persistence” involving a lot of feedback from the community – crowdsourced ideas.