Tentative Methodology
- The project would be a combination of networking and advocacy, with just enough outreach study in order to collect and collate information. The research component too, would be more in the manner of one to one discussions, open house meetings, and literature survey, which would be more in the form of collecting and collating public grievances which is regularly published in the newspapers.
- Under outreach study, the project has been designed to have 4 workshops during the first year.
- The design cum launch workshop is scheduled at third week of August, 2001- where the participants would be representatives from utility providers, politicians, regulators power experts and other stakeholders (consumer organisations, administration officials, trade union etc.). The discussions at the workshop would be planned in a manner such that the outcome of the workshop would be a status report on the current power scenario in the state and the broader outlines of three year long programme
- The second, third and fourth workshops would be at division level to be held at three select divisions (tentatively Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaipur). These would be a common platform comprising of consumers, local Panchayat Raj Representatives, utility providers and other stakeholders. This would be compiled in to a report, which would be consumer’s perception of power scenario, what they think of the system, what they expect out of the system, what are their views about reforms etc.
- The completion of this would result in us having a complete fact sheet, perception of all section of people etc. This will give us a broad framework on advocacy, whom do we need to address, what we need to do and how we go about it, and also the time frame for achieving our objectives. The research work would also give an idea of the functioning of cooperative societies for power distribution either in the country or abroad, functioning of community projects for power supply inclusive of generation using locally available raw materials. A number of such projects are being run in our country and also some of the South East Asian countries, and they have been quite successful.
- Networking would form a very crucial part of the project, to keep the work sustained, even after the end of the project. Hence, it would be a constant and continuous endeavour to keep building network – network of consumer organisations at the grassroot levels, PRIs, village elders, local linesman and engineers of utility providers, block and district level administration etc.
- A committee would be formed among the members of these networks at various levels, which would meet at regular intervals and advocate at their own level.
- Under the outreach component there would be,one to one discussions among all stakeholders, study tours- national and international where select people could be taken to various other reform states in the country, to study what was the scenario before and after the reform process was initiated, in developed countries, what the scenario was and how it is now, and how people are managing, some select developing countries where the power scenario was bad earlier and situation has been improved.
- National level seminars and focused seminars at other states would also be organised with a view to record the perception and experience of consumers of other reform states and to study the specific aspects of reform process in these states. Some of the select reform states where the focused seminars and workshops would be organised are Haryana, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
- In the advocacy component there would be series of seminars, workshops, conferences at various levels, exhibitions and fairs, innovative approaches to bring people together on a common platform like a chaupal bhaitak for instance, briefing papers, reader friendly vernacular fact sheets, situation sheets, advocacy documents.
- Number of workshops would be planned at a later date, tentatively at least one for each of the selected blocks in the selected district per year. This could culminate with a division level and then a state level seminar subsequently. A national level seminar/workshop could also be organised to discuss the work done in the state, with a view that these ideas could be replicated in other states as well.
- A combination of advocacy and networking would be the formation of cooperative societies for power distribution, or a community generation plant using locally available renewable energy source such as bio mass for instance.