What do electricity access programmes do for internally displaced populations in North East India?

由于自然灾害、气候变化以及现在的COVID-19，印度目前是世界上国内流离失所率最高的国家之一。流离失所事件对印度东北部布拉马普特拉河沿岸的影响尤为严重，洪水、河岸侵蚀和COVID-19的综合影响正在对该地区产生严重的社会和经济影响。对未来地表温度、湿度和降雨量变化的预测可能会加剧这些挑战，增加该国这一地区的流离失所率。在国家和非国家机构应对这些挑战的过程中，重点放在了确保国内流离失所者获得电力供应上，这引发了有关这些努力的政治和影响的多重问题。在这种背景下，旨在增加电力获取的计划产生了不平等的结果；洪水平原等低洼地区的人口往往最容易受到内部流离失所的影响，他们仍然没有联系，被剥夺了公民权。对印度的许多家庭来说，获得可靠、负担得起和安全的电力供应及相关服务仍然是一个挑战，即使该国声称实现了普遍电气化。我希望在阿萨姆邦的布拉马普特拉河沿岸进行一项民族志研究。鉴于该地区的地形及其独特的气候和社会文化复杂性，这些地区居民的电力供应正成为一个日益重要的问题。最容易受到洪水影响的地方，特别是低洼的沙洲（或Chars），仍然没有接入电网，最近通过州政府计划和安装微电网，太阳能电力设备的数量激增。该博士项目旨在通过对能源获取的特别关注，研究努力改善那些最容易因自然灾害和气候变化而被迫流离失所的人的生活所产生的社会政治影响。我的研究问题解决了在电网边缘的人口重新获得选举权和获得基础设施的问题。我希望将我的研究置于能源民主的背景下，研究“公共”电力服务产生的类型，并通过关注三个特定方面来补充现有文献——关税和补贴在提高电力供应可负担性方面的作用；电力计量计划对可负担性、可计算性和市场化的影响；以社区为基础的集体行动要求更好地获得能源。在未来十年，随着地方和中央政府、研究人员和民间社会将注意力集中在为所有人提供电力供应上，他们将不得不应对气候变化引起的流离失所等其他挑战。这篇论文不仅将为这些参与者提供信息，而且还将有助于关于印度东北部流离失所人口获得能源的正义含义的学术辩论，以及确保持续电力供应的努力——特别是在人类学和发展研究的话语中。

India currently carries one of the highest rates of internal displacement worldwide, as a result of natural disasters, climate change and, now, COVID-19. Displacement events have come to disproportionately affect the north-east of India, along the banks of the Brahmaputra river, where the combined effects of flooding, riverbank erosion and COVID-19 are having severe social and economic impact. Projections of future changes in surface temperature, humidity and rainfall are likely to exacerbate these challenges, increasing rates of displacement in this part of the country. As state and non-state agencies address these challenges, much emphasis has been placed on ensuring that internally displaced people have access to electricity, raising multiple questions about the politics and impacts of these efforts. Against this backdrop, programmes aimed at increasing access to electricity produce unequal outcomes; with populations in low-lying areas like flood-plains -- often most vulnerable to internal displacement -- remaining unconnected and disenfranchised. Access to reliable, affordable, and safe electricity supply and associated services is still a challenge for many households in India, even with claims of universal electrification in the country. I wish to conduct an ethnographic study along the banks of the Brahmaputra river in the state of Assam. Given the topography of the region and its unique climatic and socio-cultural complexities, electricity access for inhabitants in these districts is becoming an issue of increased importance. Places that remain most vulnerable to flooding-induced displacement, especially low-lying sandbars (or Chars), remain unconnected to the electricity grid and recently have been seeing a proliferation of solar powered electrical equipment through state government schemes and the installation of micro-grids. This PhD project aims to examine the socio-political impact of efforts to improve the lives of those most vulnerable to forced displacement as a result of natural disasters and climate change, through a specific focus on energy access. My research questions address the quest for re-enfranchisement and access to infrastructure for populations at the edge of the grid. I wish to situate my research within the context of energy democracy, examining the kind of 'public' electricity services produce and to add to the existing literature by focusing on three particular aspects -- the role of tariffs and subsidies in increasing the affordability of electricity supply; the impact of electricity metering schemes on affordability, calculability and marketisation; and the forms of community-based collective action emerging to demand better access to energy. Over the coming decade, as local and central administrations, researchers, and civil society focus their attention on provision of electricity access for all, they will have to address the additional challenges, such as displacement, that arise due to climate variability. This thesis will not only inform such participants, but will also contribute to academic debate about the justice implications of energy access for displaced populations in northeast India and the efforts to ensure sustained electricity supply -- particularly acting within anthropological and development studies discourses.