Connecting more and more people with solar energy has become an election plank for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Under the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the Ram Mandir was consecrated in Ayodhya on January 22, 2024, 10 million poor and middle-class households in India are supposed to get residential rooftop solar. 
In this series, Suno India’s Sneha Richhariya investigates what a scheme like this means to the people. In May 2024, she travelled to some energy-poor areas of north India.
Where do the poor and the middle people fit into this policy framework? In this episode, Sneha tries to find out whether the scheme is accessible to the people it is intended to benefit.
This is the first episode in Suno India’s ‘Indian Solar Dream’ series. Reporting for this series was supported by Earth Journalism Network. See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.