BENGALURU: For the first time in India, Karnataka-based NGO Karuna Trust bagged the Ashden Award for sustainable energy and health care. Ashden is a London-based charity that recognises firms working on sustainable energy and health care.
The charity chose Karuna Trust after assessing their work done at 18 primary health centres across Karnataka. The trust, which was established in 1986, is affiliated with Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra and is located in Biligiri Ranganna Hills in Chamrajanagar. It also works on empowerment of tribals.
Dr H Sudarshan, founder and secretary of Karuna Trust, told The New Indian Express that they have been working for the last four years in decentralising power grids and ensuring that there are no fatalities, especially with infants in primary health centres due to improper electricity supply. He said that they worked on setting up solar rooftop panels of up to 4KW in PHCs and up to 2KW in sub- centres.
“Most rural areas get power supply for less than eight hours a day. But after solar energy was introduced, there is uninterrupted power supply, with the help of which many deliveries have been possible,” he said.