Echoes of Gandhi in Electricity-Generating Spinning Wheel: A "Micro-Power Plant" for the Poor
by Kimberley D. Mok, Montreal, Canada 
on 09.24.08
Image: Gandhi with spinning wheel (Margaret Bourke-White, LIFE)
It’s a fitting modern tribute in a country where every major town has either a statue or a street named after Mahatma Gandhi – the man who saw the charkha or spinning wheel as a powerful instrument for self-reliance and poverty alleviation.
Originally designed as the “Ambar charkha” (meaning "sky wheel") by Ekambar Nath, one of Gandhi’s disciples, the updated e-charkha developed by R.S. Hiremath of Bangalore does not resemble traditional charkhas, but is a hand-operated spinning wheel that can generate electricity for six to seven hours of storable battery power for rural homes, while only two hours of operation will power up the specially-designed LED light source. But it's more than a power-generating gadget.
In rural areas where power outages are frequent, sources of alternative energy and livelihood such as the e-charkha can be a great boon to villagers. “I start operating the charkha at home whenever the electricity goes off,” says Shanti Devi, one woman from Jatwara village in the northwestern state of Rajasthan.
But the idea for a modified spinning wheel is not a new one and can be traced to Gandhi himself. “There used to be, and still there are, many models of the charkha. [Gandhi] made an offer in 1923 to pay Rs.1 lakh (1 lakh = 100,000 or US $2,175) to anyone who developed a spinning wheel, which would enhance the productivity while maintaining its basic characteristics and simplicity. Ekambar Nath designed the Ambar charkha in 1954,” explains Awadh Prasad, director of the Kumarappa Institute of Gram Swaraj, Jaipur.
Image: R.S. Hiremath of Bangalore with e-charkha (Applied Gandhi)
The e-charkhas, in addition with the extra electricity-generating attachment, cost Rs. 9,000 (US $197), but are being given away in a pilot project to increase the production of khadi, the traditional but versatile handspun cloth advocated by Gandhi.
“The modified Ambar charkhas were introduced a few months ago as a pilot project by the Khadi Commission under the ‘SFURTI’ (Scheme of Funds for Regeneration of Traditional Industries) program and they are proving very popular with the villagers,” says Laxmi Chand Bhandari, secretary of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC). “There is great demand for khadi products and we could have provided more Ambar charkhas to the villagers but getting weavers is a problem these days.”
Related Links on E-Charkha and Human-Powered Electricity
Solar Swadeshi: handmade electricity
Applied Gandhi: Introducing the New E-Charkha
An innovative spinning wheel generates electricity (video)
Spin, sing and power the e-charkha way
Related Links on Renewable Energy in India
Hot Water Becoming a Hot Topic: Geothermal in India
UNEP Bringing Solar Power Into India’s Rural Mainstream
World’s Largest Solar Energy Project (5GW!) Planned for Gujarat, India
Renewable Energy, Solar Power, Key to India’s New Climate Plan
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Often the best ideas are simple. At $197 I am glad they are been given away ... although it would be interesting to know if there are terms and conditions attached.
What I would really like to know is if there any strategies to harness the power of the sun in India. Given it's climate I would have thought that Solar panels could be fitted everywhere.
John Vaux
Have a healthy week
Discover The Many Uses Of Honey
Often the best ideas are simple. At $197 I am glad they are been given away ... although it would be interesting to know if there are terms and conditions attached.
What I would really like to know is if there any strategies to harness the power of the sun in India. Given it's climate I would have thought that Solar panels could be fitted everywhere.
John Vaux
Have a healthy week
Discover The Many Uses Of Honey
That's what happened to Rip Taylor! Good on ya, mate!
Actually, I think Gandi's plain old spinning wheel would be a great idea. It would generate a useful product with no electricity, which can be sold or traded. Handspun is actually quite expensive, although there should be safeguards against child labor.
This can be done with the million solar/dynamo radios NATO and US forces have distributed in Afghanistan IF they were modified to charge batteries other than the dedicated, hard-wired, internal batteries. See http://www.youtube.com/swf/l.swf?swf=http%3A//s.ytimg.com/yt/swf/cps-vfl55954.swf&video_id=j04WMo1kPto&rel=1&eurl=&iurl=http%3A//i3.ytimg.com/vi/j04WMo1kPto/default.jpg&t=OEgsToPDskJhYOy0pBktEO1p2ZAjT1nG&use_get_video_info=1&load_modules=1 for directions on the modifications.
It should be done with the 250,000 FreePlay solar/dynamo radios USAID plans to send to Sudan. FreePlay makes a solar/dynamo radio that includes a cell phone charger making the battery charging modification astoundingly easy.
This is what I call solar swadeshi, see http://solarray.blogspot.com/2005/05/solar-swadeshi-hand-made-electricity.html for more. It allows for battery switching, charging one set of batteries while using another, and can become a "sneaker net" grid of low voltage DC power.
The generation of electricity from other tasks is being developed for grinding grain in Nepal, pumping water (at the recent International Development Design Summit at MIT), and can very easily be done with any bicycle. All it requires is a little imagination. Good to see that some of that imagination is beginning to come to the fore.