SKG Sangha

The term ‘Sangha’ comes from the Indian dialects of Sanskrit or Pali and translates roughly to mean ‘a community or group united through a common vision.’ It is most often referred to as a term of Buddhism, a faith born in India and now considered one of the world’s great religions. In Buddhism, the Sangha has certain characteristics, namely one who is practicing the good, upright, knowledgeable, and proper way of life.

Living up to these lofty goals is an NGO aptly named SKG Sangha, one driven to improve various factions of life in India, particularly for women, who in the rural regions are not considered equal to men.

As is particularly the case in many undeveloped nations, women are socially and economically oppressed, and they are often seen as little more than domestic servants to their homes.

Unfortunately, their home environment typically leaves much to be desired, and women in particular are constantly exposed to unhealthy and physically- hazardous conditions there.

As caretakers of the house, women must gather and carry heavy firewood long distances to cook over wood fires, straining their backs, and exposing them to large amounts of heavy smoke.

Because of a lack of plumbing, sewage, and waste disposal, and because of their rural setting in which they are surrounded by animals, women are also exposed to disease-carrying waste, more than their male counterparts.

SKG Sangha works to empower these rural women by providing them with both the training and tools required to turn the waste, particularly from cows, into the clean cooking fuel biogas. This allows the women to shift away from the use of firewood, making cooking cleaner and safer.

In doing so, the environment also benefits, both through the recycling of waste, and because less smoke equals less greenhouse gas emissions.

As a second facet to their empowerment, the byproduct of the process is then composted by being mixed with organic waste and fed to earthworms, which in turn produces fertilizer. This valuable product is then sold by the women, allowing them to make their own income and achieve social status – things otherwise generally unheard of in rural India.

SKG Sangha is working to install thousands of biogas plants and hundreds of thousands of improved cook stoves, as well as assisting in the creation of vermicomposting units.

Empowering women economically, trickles down through other elements of society, with the ultimate goal being that women are also empowered socially, educationally, and even politically.

Truly living up to its namesake Sangha principles, SKG Sangha is uniting rural women under the common goal of self-liberation and empowerment.

Through SKG Sangha, the women are being trained in rural technologies, which are then implemented through the creation of women’s associations. Thousands of women are organizing through these associations and together, finding the strength and resources by which to liberate themselves from discrimination and oppression.

The skills they learn through these association, in conjunction with SKG Sangha do not end at vermicomposting and improved cooking conditions. Women are also taught and share other profitable skills like pottery making, tailoring, bee keeping, and even the assembly of solar-powered lanterns.

SKG Sangha has also organized thousands of what they call ‘awareness camps’ on health and sanitation, rainwater harvesting and organic farming, to further educate rural women.

As a whole, SKG Sangha wants to both empower the oppressed and underprivileged, while simultaneously rescuing and restoring the struggling environment.

Just as SKG Sangha is living up to its name by uniting rural women, it also hopes to “synergise the elements of nature with the power of people and thereby create a constant resource for renewable energy for a beautiful world.”

The non-profit voluntary organization sees its core focus areas as: “sustainable energy, sustainable agriculture, rural industrialization, solid waste management and optimizing natural resources.”

They fervently promote the use of renewable energy resources and work to develop new sources.

In particular, SKG Sangha promotes and develops the use of biomass, a vital alternative to fossil fuels that can be used for a range of energy needs, as noted above in the production of biogas.

Touting the phrase: ‘You name the waste – we provide a solution!’, SKG Sangha is working to create biogas through a variety of common waste sources – namely agriculture, poultry, and dairy, as well as non-agricultural sources, such as industrial waste.

Already SKG Sangha has:

• Installed over 50,000 domestic biogas plants (the largest number of family-sized bio-gas plants in India!)
• Installed a number of larger plants for both commercial and community purposes
• Installed hundreds of toilets attached to domestic biogas plants
• Used biogas plants for treating market, hotel, and industrial waste
• Generated electrical power through biogas
• Installed 114,921 improved fuel efficient wood fuel stoves
• Also focused on the conversion of rooftop rainwater into drinking water.

Their careful and well-planned work has also given them the largest success rate to date – 95% after 8 years as opposed to an average of 42% from previous projects.

It is estimated that the projects of SKG Sangha are preventing a half million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gases from being released into the atmosphere.

It is no surprise that SKG Sangha is coming to be recognized globally as a grassroots leader in renewable energy and waste management. They were most recently honored as a 2008 Equality Award Laureate at the prestigious Tech Awards which honor those using technology to benefit humanity.

Truly, SKG Sangha is creating ‘a community united through a common vision' and its many dedicated volunteers are living up to the principles of living a 'good, upright, knowledgeable, and proper way of life' by helping both rural women and the environment. In creating a synergized relationship between nature and humans, boundless renewable energy is created both literally and symbolically.