Thematic summary of the hearing on "Energy Access for the Urban Poor in India”
On the 20th of October 2011 the Indian Global Service Society (IGSSS) hosted an expert-meeting on “Energy Access for the Urban Poor in India” at their main office in Delhi. Around 15 participants from 10 different Indian organizations discussed on a whole set of different aspects related to “energy-poverty” in urban India. In this summary the main findings of this meeting will be depicted following a thematic rather than a chronological order – it should be considered that the discussions took about three hours, which partly explains the considerable length of this summary. The central conclusion of the meeting deserves to be emphasized here: energy poverty in urban areas in India is not a result of lacking resources, excessive costs for the expansion of infrastructure or the absence of technological feasible solutions – rather the root of the problem of energy poverty in urban and peri-urban areas is the weak position of the poor in India’s society and the underrepresentation of their belongings in politics. There are financially viable technological solutions available to reduce energy poverty in India– they are just not on the political agenda.