Power Trips in India

Last Monday's Washington Post ran an interesting feature about the efforts of S.K. Das, a utility company enforcement manager in New Delhi, India, to track down individuals and businesses who steal power from his company. The theft of electrical power in New Delhi is a substantial problem. The New Delhi power ministry reports that about 36 percent of all power consumed in this city of 14 million is stolen. The substantial number of free-riders places significant strain on the city's power grid, which can experience blackouts of whole districts of the city when residents use fans and air conditioners to get relief from oppressive summer heat.
Part of the solution, according to the article, is technological: new power meters equipped with computer chips and modems, which enables monitoring of tampering from remote locations; and replacement of low-voltage lines, which individuals can tap simply by throwing metal hooks over the lines, with high-voltage lines. For now, however, human intervention, involving both power company employees and the police, appears the most effective deterrent to continued power theft. Power thieves span the social classes, from slum dwellers to the affluent. The work of cutting off power theft is not without its risks: earlier this year, while trying to conduct an enforcement raid, Das and his enforcement team "were beaten by a mob that a local politician had whipped up." To his credit, Das recognizes that power theft has been a habit for "the past 20 or 30 years," and sees his work as a way of changing "the mind-set of the people."
Das's efforts can be seen as a microcosm of India's struggles to curb power theft and upgrade its electrical infrastructure. A recent BBC News report estimated that "somewhere between a third and half of the country's electricity supply is unpaid for." Moreover, Indian farmers, whose irrigation systems reportedly consume at least 20 percent of India's power, are accustomed to getting free or unfairly low-priced power (i.e., low set rates that take no account of the volume of power consumption). The Christian Science Monitor reported last year that farmers did not take kindly to government cutoffs of free electricity in many areas. Even after the Indian Parliament made power theft a criminal offense in 2003, some politicians are reluctant to challenge the farmers' lobby or upset constituents by pressing the power theft issue too vigorously. Reported "high-level collusion involving big industrialists and politicians" may also make some utilities cautious about challenging the politically powerful.
In the end, what may work best in changing Indian attitudes about power theft is a combination of simple changes in technology and the enlistment of community and religious leaders' support. A June 13 article in the Indian Express noted that in Godhra, India, the local power company laid PVC-covered cables to defeat the hook-and-wire method of pilferage, and installed pole meters to measure power disbursement from each pole. But the company also initiated a dialogue in communities to build support for change, and found religious leaders who were willing to speak about the issue. In his sermons at a local mosque, one maulvi [i.e., an Islamic religious cleric or teacher] "explained to people how bad theft is from [a] religious point of view. Some other religious leaders also pitched in and told people that if they do namaz [defined as the five daily prayers by Muslims to Allah] after washing hands with water obtained through power theft, it wouldn't be heard by Allah . . . ."