Sustainable lifestyle is necessary for sustainable development-Dr. Janak Palta McGilligan
Solar thermal cooking technologies for sustainable Devlopment
Indore
A symposium for engineering students and teachers on the topic Solar Thermal Cooking Technologies Sustainable Energy was held at Acropolis on April 19, on the fourth day of Sustainable Development Week 2024 in memory of Jimmy McGilligan. Keynote speaker Dr. Janak Palta McGilligan, along with her late husband r Jimmy McGilligan, developed Barli Rural Women's Institute as a completely sustainable campus for 26 years and imparted education in reading, writing, skills, health, organic farming to illiterate girls from Jhabua-Alirajpur areas
Along with increasing conservation of soil, trees and animals, training was given to save water, forests and life through solar thermal cookers. Solar thermal cookers are completely pollution-free without any battery, whereas photovoltaic ones are made of silicon and also require a battery, which is not green and sustainable. When Janak McGilligan as a director o Barli Institute went to 302 villages in remote areas and saw that women in every house were cooking with wood smoke, so she felt that cooking with smoke was violence against women. "But we also implemented literacy in residential training programs. Soon the institute trained them in health, environment and livelihood skills for 300 days for 100 girls and they became confident and started taking solar cookers to their homes. But we first trained them how to use the cooker and then take it home and use it properly. We understood that the solar cooker technology should be given to the users after training otherwise they would not be able to use it properly. Otherwise they don't even use it properly and keep blaming it. Our trained women took 1000 solar cookers that improved the quality of life , health and income.. Sustainable lifestyle is necessary for sustainable development. We can eliminate the negative impact on nature by consciously decide that no matter what we do has to be sustainable. Sharing her ground experiences he said that we have unlimited reserves of solar thermal energy which is completely natural, if it can be used to improve the lives of people in rural areas, then its benefits will be manifold. She told about her late husband Jimmy McGilligan that in 1997, ahead of time and without any professional degree or training, he built a solar kitchen which is needed by everyone today.
The second keynote speaker of the seminar, renowned solar engineer Deepak Gadhia from Vadodara, emphasized to the students and professors present in the auditorium that making people aware of India's social, economic and climate crisis and making them aware of solar thermal cooking systems. And reaching out to a large number of people is the need of the hour. He told that he made Brahma first community solar kitchen at Brahma Kumari Ashram in Mount Abu has the world's first solar steam cooking system to cook 10,000 meals per day, Shirdi temple to cook 50,000 meals per day, Tirupati temple to cook 30,000 meals per day, 2004 Muni Seva Ashram to cook 100 tons for Kailash Cancer Hospital. He m made India's first air conditioning system from solar dish and on April 2, 2023, installed India's first 500 square meter solar dish, the world's largest, which will sterilize the medical equipment of the entire hospital, will be enough for the laundry of the entire hospital, zero carbon emission and It will run without any pollution emissions and is based on completely renewable energy instead of fossil fuels.
Deepak Gadhia not only explained about the technical aspects of solar energy but also told how new experiments are being done on it every day and how they can be directly beneficial for our society. He gave all the information in an interesting manner. To avoid the crisis caused by climate change, both the speakers said that small changes in our habits are important. Dr. Atul Bharat heartily thanked both the speakers for the very important information and guidance.
