Indian Girl collects Funds to buy LED Bulbs for Underprivileged

With an aim to bring down the net power or energy consumption and to keep carbon emission rates in check the government of India launched UJALA scheme. Under this scheme LED bulbs are made available to people at a very cheap rate.

The scheme that is grabbing headlines across the globe couldn't miss the eyes of Meera Vashisht a 13-year-old girl studying in Houston, Texas. She got to know about the programme while she was doing research for her 7th standard science project for school.

The programme caught the young girl's fancy and she took it upon herself to raise funds for buying LED bulbs and then distribute it among those sections of society who still can't afford such bulbs.

What intrigued her the most were the success stories of this initiative and she began doing more research on the topic and tried to understand fully the impact of this programme on Indian and its environment.

The research made the young Meera realise that there can be a huge potential impact of LED bulbs and she decided that she will raise funds and contribute towards this noble cause that will bring in a big change in India.

She took support of her parents and began collecting funds from her neighbourhood. She reached out to around 500 people in one year's time and collected $2079.51 which would approximately come to Rs. 1,40,000 to purchase LED bulbs from Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL). EESL is the implementing agency for the UJALA programme.

From the money contributed by Meera Vashisht EESL distributed LED bulbs to the resident of JJ clusters in Keshavpuram in Delhi yesterday.

During the occasion, cheerful Meera said, "LED bulbs use less than half the energy of an inefficient bulb and runs for over 7-8 years. I am very happy to have been able to carry out the distribution of LED bulbs and hope to inspire young minds across the globe for working towards energy efficiency."

Meera also believes that her effort will result in lighting up 46 houses for one year, reducing electricity bills by Rs. 2,500 and most importantly there will be significant reduction in CO2 emissions every year. Notably, her initiative will further strengthen India's commitment to achieving 30-35% reduction in carbon emissions.

Under UJALA, over 12.60 crore LED bulbs have already been distributed across India. This is leading to a daily energy savings of about 4.48 crore kWh and resulting in avoidance of about 3,278 MW of peak demand. Through the scheme, the estimated cumulative cost reduction of bills of consumers, per day, is INR 17.94 crores. The initiative is part of Government of India's efforts to spread the message of energy efficiency in the country.