Solar Design: Headlamps for Midwives

I missed the first Solar Design class because I was sick, but I was so taken with the project selected for the weekly critique that I decided to blog about it. The case study involved the development of a headlamp for midwives in Ahmendabad, Gujarat. According to the project’s documentation:

Traditionally, midwives have to travel long distances during the late hours of the night and/or early morning to assist deliveries. Child birth normally takes place well inside the homes and very often the rooms are very poorly lit. Since the time of delivery is unpredictable, in most cases the delivery takes place with just the midwife assisting the lady in labour as the man of the house is not allowed to be present. Thus, they make a hole in the wall and reflect the sunlight using a mirror (for day time deliveries) or use kerosene lamps (for night time deliveries). The former is very often difficult and not always possible, the latter poses a health hazard and does not provide enough luminescence since the midwife is the only person involved and holding the kerosene lamp to shed light accurately is not convenient.

SELCO, an India-based social enterprise that provides sustainable energy solutions to under-served communities, partnered with the local Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) to develop a headlamp that would solve the midwives lighting problem. The solar-powered headlamp design provided a hands-free way to focus light on the way to, from, and during childbirth.

Focus group responses (see youtube video here) to the product were very positive, and a few suggestions (increase water resistance, increase luminescence) were incorporated into a new version of the headlamp. Most strikingly, the midwives suggested that the headlamp could be used in other communities, such as flower pickers, masonry workers, embroidery workers, and fisherman, revealing how widespread the problem of access to light is in rural India.

Although we don’t have access to focus groups and field research, I’m looking forward to employing a similar project development method in Solar Design this year. Chapter 2 of our textbook, Rural Electrification with Photovoltaics, focuses on the reasons that Africa has such an enormous potential for solar energy. It’s exciting to have an opportunity to rethink infrastructure and work toward atypical, off the grid solutions for day-to-day problems.