Sustainable energy practitioners have long established that lack of access to energy affects rural and urban populations’ productivity and well-being, impacting their livelihood-generation capacity, education outcomes, health outcomes, and quality of life.

The Government of India, under its Community Development Programme, 1952, set up Primary Health Centres (PHC) and Sub Centres (SC) at the village level. PHCs are the cornerstone of the last-mile healthcare delivery system. Their main objective is to provide preventive, curative, promotional healthcare and family welfare services to the people. According to Indian Primary Health Standards, there shall be one PHC to serve a population of 20,000–30,000 (depending upon whether the terrain is hilly or plain). Staff at each PHC must include a medical officer, staff nurse, laboratory technician, pharmacist, male and female health workers, Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA), and administrative staff.

Each PHC is further supported by a network of five to six SCs, which are the most peripheral healthcare units at the village level. SCs provide healthcare to a population of 3,000 in hilly / tribal areas and 5,000 in the plains. The services are related to maternal and child health, family welfare, nutrition, immunisation, diarrhoea control, and communicable diseases. Each SC is run by an Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) and a Male Health Worker (MHW)