THIS refers to a photograph in which two Pakistani Kashmiri women have been shown carrying firewood on their heads as they walk in the difficult terrain of a village near Sharda in the mountainous region of Neelum Valley.
The firewood they were carrying was to be used for cooking food. Imagine, how many households must be there in our hilly areas? Each one of them needs wood to cook food.
This wood is procured from no source other than the forests of that area. How long would the forests survive to firewood? A similar problem was being faced at a refugee camp in Chad, an African country.
The camp houses 17,000 refugees who fled the Darfur region of Sudan. These refugees were facing gender-based violence during firewood collection.
As a solution to the problem, solar cookers were distributed among the refugees.Thisreduced their dependence on firewood.
About 4,000 families in the camp were trained by certified trainers to use solar cookers effectively. These cookers were assembled by the women folk right at the site of the refugee camp.
India uses the largest solar cooker (rather solar kitchen) in the world. The system has been installed with technology from Germany. With cooking at 650 degree Celsius, the system can produce up to 38,500 meals a day when the sun is at its peak.
Why can`t the AJK government provide solar cookers to its poor population living in the hilly terrain? Our government can also provide these cookers to people living in the northern areas ofthe country.These cookers wouldn`t cost more than Rs1,000 a piece if assembled in bulk.
