The Campaign

80-90% of Delhi's slums have limited access to electricity. Children living in these slums suffer from incessant power cuts that make it extremely difficult for them to study after sunset - leading to loss of interest and, eventually, dropping out of school. NGO Salaam Baalak Trust (SBT) runs many schools across the slums of Delhi and wanted a solution to this problem. It started with the simple insight that all school children have a constant companion - their school bag. We wanted to create a simple and sustainable solution using it. Thus, the Light Bag was born – a school bag that acts as a portable study unit with a solar panel and light attached. This Light Bag addressed the needs of the slum children by giving them an electricity-free study lamp and enabled SBT to reduce the number of drop-outs. It also gave SBT a unique PR opportunity to create greater awareness for their cause.

The Brief

The target audience for our campaign were school children living in Delhi slums. Currently, 80-90% of Delhi's slum population do not have access to electricity. This results in low academic performance in schools because homework and studies are done with great difficulty. Salaam Baalak Trust, an NGO in Delhi, wanted an easy and sustainable solution that would make it easier for slum children to study at night and increase their academic productivity.

Results

In just 45 days the campaign has impacted the lives of more than 5000 slum children. The number of contributors have also gone up dramatically and generated coverage worth USD 1 million by garnering over 8 million media impressions. One of India’s leading English dailies, Hindustan Times – carried it as a front page story. It has also been featured in various design magazines and shared thousands of times on social media. This innovation has also been selected as a case study by KxSD – Knowledge x-change for Sustainable Development an initiative by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) supported by the UK Government.

Execution

To achieve this impossible challenge we assembled existing funds from Salaam Baalak Trust, that was enough for about 200 Light Bags. Our team used local tailors to put together the design we had conceived. The bags were distributed free in one of the schools of Salaam Baalak. Once the campaign was launched it got picked up by the media. Over the next 45 days the campaign got featured in India's leading English dailies and various design magazines, blogs and websites. It also got shared thousands of times on social media. The media buzz also made our number of contributors go up dramatically. Till date we have distributed 5000 bags to slum children. We intend to scale up the project further and cover all slums across Delhi.

The Situation

Delhi's slums have limited access to electricity. Children living in these slums suffer from incessant power cuts that make it extremely difficult for them to study after sunset - leading to loss of interest and, eventually, dropping out of school. For most, education is the only way out from living in the slum, and due to this simple problem many children hit a dead end in their lives. It was important to bring this issue into public notice to heighten the awareness on it. Only then was it possible for us to garner more funds and contributions to scale up the project.

The Strategy

It all started with the simple insight that all school children have a constant companion - their school bag. We wanted to create a simple and sustainable solution using it. Thus, the Light Bag was born – a school bag that acts as a portable study unit with a solar panel and lights attached. The bags were made from the existing funds in Salaam Baalak. The project was initiated with a small number of 200 bags that were distributed in their schools. The launch was covered by the media. And the buzz it created helped in garnering thousands of new contributors, that made it possible to cover more slums with the distribution drive. Because of their effort over 5000 children in the slums of Delhi now study more comfortably at night using the Light Bag.