Malsawmdawngliani, a nurse who has served over 20 years at the Hnahlan Primary Health Centre (PHC) in Champhai district, Mizoram, remembers an incident from nearly six years ago that haunts her to this day. On 14 September 2019, a baby girl with pneumonia and serious breathing difficulties was brought to the health centre. She desperately needed oxygen, but a long power cut rendered the oxygen concentrator unusable. The backup diesel generator was also out of commission.

Speaking to The Better India, Malsawmdawngliani recalls, “Due to the power cut, we couldn’t administer oxygen to her. I can’t forget seeing her health deteriorate as we watched helplessly. The baby sadly died, and till this day, I cannot forget the pain I felt that day.”

In Mizoram, a state characterised by lush rolling hills and stunning green valleys, such frequent power disruptions were, until recently, a common occurrence, severely impacting healthcare services in PHCs and other last-mile health centres.

As Dr Lalnuntluangi Chawngthu, Assistant Director, Directorate of Health Services, Government of Mizoram, notes, “While many health centres in Mizoram are connected to the electricity grid and generally receive a stable power supply, a significant number of PHCs and sub-centres in remote and hilly areas frequently face disruptions. These interruptions are largely due to environmental and geographic challenges unique to the region — such as heavy rainfall, landslides, and cyclonic storms — that damage power lines or restrict repair access. In such remote terrains, even minor infrastructure breakdowns can lead to prolonged outages, affecting the regular functioning of essential services like health care.”

Dr Lalnuntluangi also recalls an incident from a decade ago when a similar outage disrupted critical vaccinations. At the time, she was posted as a young doctor at the Bunghmun PHC in Lunglei district, Mizoram.

“During the monsoon season, relentless rains triggered massive landslides, completely cutting off the area. A seven-day power outage followed, which led to many vaccines getting spoiled. As a result, there was a delay of nearly two weeks in vaccinating children,” she recalls.

A solar solution for last-mile healthcare

To address these concerns, the Mizoram government collaborated with SELCO Foundation, a non-profit operating in seven Northeastern States, to empower communities by improving access to last-mile healthcare delivery and to “achieve blanket solar electrification of health centres across the state” in 2023, according to Dr Lalnuntluangi.

This initiative is part of SELCO Foundation’s larger programme, Energy for Health (E4H), which seeks to harness renewable energy to transform last-mile health centres in Northeast India. The programme in Mizoram was supported by the IKEA Foundation, the Waverly Street Foundation, the Ashraya Hastha Trust, and LIC Housing Finance.

Since the inception of this programme in Mizoram, Dr Lalnuntluangi claims that more........

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