Audio Visuals

Mobile Communities and Climate Change – Shepherds Choose Solar

Language: EnglishPublished: October 2009 Duration: 6 min 9 secs

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Or0R3Zq8WQ

Even as the prospect of a warmer globe and climate chaos loom large and countries fiercely bicker about where to put the blame, a large population of humanity, a population approximately equivalent to the population of a country like Germany; about 70 million people, in India are historically nomadic.

A significant portion of them are pastoral nomads herding livestock for 12 months of the year. It is not this life style which is amazing but rather their life without style which is almost negative in its carbon foot print in terms of the energy they consume. Yet, they contribute significantly to different sections of the Indian population with food, fertilizer and fibre.

ANTHRA has been working with these communities providing support especially in livestock health, education.
Today many shepherds are eager to use mobile phones to connect with their families while on migration. ANTHRA provides a proactive SMS service informing shepherds of what they need to do each month to prevent disease in their livestock.

As they do not have access to electricity for charging their mobiles while on migration ANTHRA has assisted them get appropriate solar mobile chargers and lanterns.