Measuring last-mile electrification in Jharkhand
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Study Context
Governments have a choice to employ public officials or hire private contractors to deliver public services. While private contractors may have stronger incentives to perform well, their profit-orientation may not align with public goals like fairness and service quality. Researchers study privately contracted providers of public services in the context of India’s ongoing drive for universal household electrification. The government’s Saubhagya program offers large subsidies to get poor rural households connected to the electric grid. The Jharkhand state electricity distribution company (JBVNL) hires private contractors to both connect and subsequently bill these new customers. However, there are concerns that contractors may inappropriately extract money from customers by demanding bribes for grid connections or overbilling customers, or that contractors may collude with customers to pocket revenue concealed from JBVNL.
Study Design
In this exploratory pilot, researchers sought to understand the performance of contractors’ delivery of grid connections. The researchers visited a representative sample of households across 60 villages pronounced “fully electrified.”
Results and Policy Lessons
They find significant unmet demand for electricity connections, and that private contractors leave many consumers unconnected. Depending on the block, as many as 90% or as few of 10% of households may actually have working connections. This suggests that roughly 33% of the population may remain disconnected from the grid even though the state of Jharkhand declared meeting the goal of 100% household electrification. This research was the first to systematically document shortfalls in the Saubhagya universal electrification program. Researchers are now building on this exploratory work to design a full-scale evaluation of monitoring interventions that could improve the delivery of grid connections, billing and other customer services involved in this important program.
