Solar spinning wheels gave women work, but weak markets and poor policies pushed them back to migration and daily wage labour.

Amravati, Maharashtra: In Maharashtra’s Melghat region, Sushila (34) from Dharakot village sits on the floor of her dimly lit mud house, next to a solar charkha that has not turned in years. Its panels are layered with dust, the spindle frozen mid-turn, a reminder of a time when she no longer had to leave her children behind and travel for work. “I was very happy then,” she said. “The charkha gave me income while staying at home.”

When the solar charkha first arrived in Melghat in 2015, it was framed as a quiet revolution. Dharni taluka, known nationally for malnutrition, farmer suicides, and migration, was chosen by the Maharashtra State Khadi & Village Industries Board (MKVIB) and the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) to pilot a new idea: use renewable energy to revive Gandhi’s spinning wheel and turn it into a viable livelihood.

Fourteen villages were identified, and about 150 tribal women trained. Each received a solar-powered charkha worth Rs 40,000, free of cost. “They said we could earn a livelihood without leaving home,” said Sushila, who went for training in nearby Mandu. “I agreed immediately.” Within months, women who had never spun yarn before were earning Rs 5,000-Rs 6,000 a month, a substantial income in villages where landless households relied on migration and daily wage labour.

To handle raw cotton supply and yarn collection, the women set up the Kasturba Solar Khadi Mahila Samiti. Soon, with support from the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) and the state khadi board, they went a step further, launching the GreenFab Common Facility Centre (CFC). It housed ginning, dyeing, warping, weaving, even block printing, all powered by solar energy. For the first time, women in Melghat were not just spinning, they were running an entire fibre-to-fabric chain.

To handle raw cotton supply and yarn collection, the women set up the Kasturba Solar Khadi Mahila Samiti (Photo - Satish Malviya, 101Reporters)

Promise

At its peak, the Samiti employed over 500 people, almost all women. They opened retail stores in Amravati and Nagpur under the brand “Kuteer Charkha,” and launched their own label “GreenFab.” “We felt proud we had our own brand, our own designs,” said Mona Murli (28), who supervised the Mandu CFC which had a team of ten other women. “I thought this would go on forever.”

But the promise was short-lived. Orders slowed down, and when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, they stopped altogether. The CFC shut, the shops closed, and the Samiti slid into debt. Machines lay idle, unsold stock piled up, and households, pressed for cash, began dismantling and selling their solar charkhas, sometimes for scrap. Some women returned to farm and construction labour; others took up MGNREGS trench-digging.

In Dharakot, Sushila is back to migrating for casual labour, earning barely Rs 200 a day digging soil or carrying stones. “We don’t have farmland. At least with the charkha, I could spin while looking after my children. Now I must leave them behind and do whatever daily wage work comes,” she said. In the same village, Geeta Bai Jaanjwar (35) spends her days breaking the hard soil of a hillside trenching project. “We used to earn up to Rs 2,000 a week from the charkha,” she said, wiping sweat from her forehead. “Now we don’t even make that in a month.”

District KVIB officer Pradeep Chachere admitted the initiative struggled once external support receded. “Rising costs, reduced market share, and lack of marketing skills made it unsustainable,” he said. “But with proper backing, this could still create over 2,000 jobs in Amravati’s tribal belt.”

Melghat’s experience was part of a larger experiment. India’s first solar charkha cluster was launched in 2016 at Khankwan in Nawada, Bihar, but it reportedly failed to take off. 

In 2018-19, the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) scaled up the idea into the Mission Solar Charkha, with a budget of Rs 550 crore for its first two years. The scheme aimed to create one lakh jobs across 50 clusters. But by 2021, RTI replies confirmed that the mission had been discontinued. Neither MSME nor KVIC explained why.

Of the total budget, Maharashtra’s two clusters received about Rs 13 crore. But several agencies selected to run clusters, including the Mukund Education Society in Maharashtra and the Wardha Kukkutpalan Va Krishi Udyog Sanshodhan Co-operative Society Limited, later claimed that the scheme had largely existed on paper.

One notable exception has been the Magan Khadi Sansthan in Wardha, which has been running solar charkhas for more than a decade. Today, it still employs around 60 women. Its survival highlights what Dharni lacked.

At its peak, the Samiti employed over 500 people, almost all women (Photo - Satish Malviya, 101Reporters)

Why Magan Khadi survived

Magan Khadi had strong institutional roots. It grew out of an older khadi institution with an existing production and sales network. Its leadership also had professional training. Director Mukesh Lutade, who received two years of training at Gandhigram University in Tamil Nadu about 15 years ago, learned to produce high-quality khadi and scale it up in line with fashion trends. Under him and Vibha Gupta of the Magan Sangrahalaya Samiti, the centre invested in design and market linkages. This professionalisation allowed it to fulfil large orders from major fashion brands.

As an employee, Abhijit Magan, explained, the organisation was already known in the khadi sector through small clients, but its reputation grew after it began meeting industry demand for bulk fabric that matched modern standards.

By contrast, the Dharni cluster was run by a voluntary group with little experience in management or marketing. It remained heavily dependent on state support, and once that support ended, the cluster collapsed.

Magan Khadi had strong institutional roots (Photo - Satish Malviya, 101Reporters)

However, even for Magan Khadi, challenges remain. Lutade noted that solar charkha fabric struggles to compete with mill yarn because of higher labour costs. Maintenance is also expensive, up to three times more than a hand charkha, unless the technology is improved. More critically, KVIC does not recognise solar khadi as “khadi,” since its certification applies only to cloth made on traditional hand charkhas. Without certification, solar khadi cannot access the subsidies and marketing channels that sustain traditional khadi.

Lutade argued that despite these hurdles, solar charkha must be promoted for its employment potential. “From cotton to fabric, khadi production gives work to 16 people, while mill production employs only 2-3 people per shirt,” he says. Chachere, from the Dharni cluster, echoed this view that solar khadi cannot match mill cloth on price, but it generates far more jobs at a much lower investment per worker.

The Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) has studied these challenges. One report, Solarvastra: Is Renewable Energy-powered Sustainable Fashion a Real Market Opportunity?, identified the lack of advanced market linkages as a major barrier to expanding solar charkha and loom production. It recommended integrating solar khadi into the khadi brand or ensuring it receives equal support in policy, procurement, and marketing. 

Another study, Decentralised Renewable Energy Technologies for Sustainable Livelihoods, notes that long production cycles delay payments and make the business unviable without subsidies or long-term loans.

This story was covered with the support of the Earth Journalism Network.

Cover photo - An old woman working on the charkha (Photo - Satish Malviya, 101Reporters)