Miles to go before you recharge phone in this Rajasthan village

Mangalore Today News Network

Jaipur, Dec 21, 2016 DHNS: The villagers in Rajasthan’s tribal district of Banswara may boast of having three mobile operators vying to serve them, but without electricity at home, there is no way to charge their phones.

Everyday, villagers walk a few miles to the neighbouring tehsils to recharge their devices, allowing local shopkeepers to earn a sizable side income in the process.

A portion of the wall in Devilal Sharma’s store has been reserved for charging mobile phones. “I have been offering this service for the past decade,” Devilal told DH.

The lucrative side business has lured dozens like him across different tehsils. On an average, the shopkeepers charge Rs 10 to Rs 15 for recharging the devices, which offers them an additional income of Rs 3,000 to Rs 6,000 a month. Phones tethered to the charging stations here range from low-end to mid-range smartphones.

The villagers usually leave their devices or the batteries for charging before attending to other businesses in town. “We give them a slip with a code number which they need to show to collect their device,” Devilal said.

In the end, the villagers spend nearly double the sums for the recharge, while the device would have cost them about Rs 1,500 or Rs 2,000. “They have no option but to come here and charge their phones,” Shanti Prasad, who runs a grocery store at Danpur, said.

“Without electricity and roads, they walk a few miles here once in two days to recharge their device,” he added. A district official who spoke to DH on condition of anonymity said the villages are being provided electricity.

“There have been certain low points as the department could not achieve the targets under the ‘Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY),” the official said, referring to the central government scheme to provide electricity to villages.

“But now, the administration is trying to make the most of the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (introduced by the NDA government),” he added.