Source: United Nations, World Bank, Community Eye Health Journal.
Scattered across the mangrove forests and tidal waterways of West Bengal, many communities in the Sundarbans remain isolated from essential services. Families live in simple mud and straw homes without reliable electricity, running water, healthcare, or transport.
Daily life is closely tied to the surrounding environment. Men fish or hunt at night to support their families, facing dangerous conditions and the risk of encounters with local crocodiles, tigers, and unpredictable weather. Some do not return, leaving women to support their households with few reliable ways to make a living.
Without light after sunset, it becomes difficult for women to care for children or complete other household tasks. Children who are lucky enough to attend school are also unable to study once it grows dark.
These challenges extend beyond the absence of electricity. Geographic isolation, insecure livelihoods, frequent natural disasters, and limited access to services can leave families with few options when hardship arises. For women, practical resources, income generation, and access to government assistance can create greater safety and stability.
Bringing Light to the Sundarbans began with the idea that one solar lantern could create more time, greater safety, and new opportunities for a family.
A lantern could help a child continue to learn after the sun sets. It could allow a woman to continue sewing to make an income after dark. It could help a fisherman prepare nets for the next day, or a family move more safely through the village at night.
Over time, the light reached further.
As the Kolkata Mary Ward Social Centre continued to support women and families, the project grew to address the wider challenges affecting the community. Today, solar lanterns remain an important part of the work, alongside women-led self-help groups, livelihood support, rights education, child protection, and assistance accessing legal identity documents and government schemes.
The project now brings light in many forms: lighting homes after dark, knowledge that helps women understand their rights, practical support that strengthens livelihoods, and pathways that connect families with education and essential services.
Women meet to share experiences, build knowledge, develop livelihood initiatives, and engage with local services and decision-makers.
Sessions cover legal rights, child protection, menstrual health, parenting, and girls’ education, helping families recognise risks and access support.
Project staff help families secure identity documents and apply for government schemes and entitlements.
Families receive help overcoming enrolment barriers, while solar lanterns allow children to study after dark.
Chicks and ducklings help families strengthen household nutrition and develop small sources of income.
Solar lanterns support study, household work, and livelihoods while reducing reliance on kerosene.
The women and families of the Sundarbans understand the realities of their environment and the priorities of their communities.
Bringing Light to the Sundarbans builds on this local knowledge by strengthening the tools available to them: rights education, collective support, legal identity, income opportunities, and access to essential resources.
A solar lantern provides light after dark. Documentation opens access to education or government assistance. Self-help groups give women the confidence and strength to speak about the issues shaping their lives.
Together, these forms of support help communities respond to uncertainty with greater agency.
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