Bijli Sakhi Yojana - Chhattisgarh

What is Bijli Sakhi Yojana in Chhattisgarh?

Bijli Sakhi Yojana is a rural women's livelihood initiative in which self-help group members are trained to take electricity meter readings for the Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company (CSPDCL) in their own villages, and are paid per reading. Women engaged under it are called Bijli Sakhis, or in departmental language Vidyut Sakhis.

The initiative was launched in Chhattisgarh in 2025 under Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, and began as a pilot in Jashpur district, in Bagicha block. The district administration first identified gram panchayats where CSPDCL's own meter readers were not reaching reliably, then selected 21 literate, active women from self-help groups and trained them in meter reading and data entry. Those 21 women covered 21 gram panchayats.

The problem it solves is specific. In remote and forested parts of Chhattisgarh, a departmental meter reader may not visit for months. Consumers then receive estimated or accumulated bills, disputes rise, and CSPDCL's collection suffers. A resident woman who lives in the panchayat can read every meter every month because she is already there.

Main features

• Payment of about Rs 12 per meter reading.
• Reported monthly earnings of about Rs 4,000 to Rs 6,000 for pilot participants.
• Reported annual supplementary income of about Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000, taking total household earnings past Rs 1 lakh for many participants.
• Women drawn from existing self-help groups under the state rural livelihood mission, known in Chhattisgarh as Bihan.
• Training in meter reading and data recording before deployment.
• Work confined to the woman's own gram panchayat area.

Reporting from the pilot also indicates that each Vidyut Sakhi is expected to be allotted a working area of roughly a thousand households, though allotment sizes in practice depend on how scattered the habitations are.

Who can become a Bijli Sakhi and who cannot?

You can be considered if:

• You are a woman member of an active self-help group formed under the state rural livelihood mission (Bihan / NRLM) in Chhattisgarh.
• You are literate and numerate, the work involves reading a meter correctly and entering the figure on a mobile device without error.
• You live in the gram panchayat where readings are needed.
• You can travel within the panchayat on foot or by two-wheeler, since the work is house to house.
• Your group is in good standing on savings and repayment, which is how block Bihan staff usually shortlist.

You are not eligible if:

• You are not a member of a self-help group. There is no route for an individual woman outside the SHG structure to apply directly to CSPDCL for this work.
• You live in a panchayat or district where the programme has not been rolled out. As of the last verifiable reporting, the programme was operating as a district pilot rather than as a fully notified statewide scheme, so most panchayats simply have no vacancy to fill.
• You are a man. The work is reserved for women under the livelihood mission's design.
• You are seeking a regular government job. Bijli Sakhi work is piece-rate engagement, not employment with CSPDCL, and carries no pay scale, pension or permanency.

That last point deserves emphasis because it is where expectations most often go wrong. A Bijli Sakhi is paid per reading, not a salary, and the engagement can end when CSPDCL changes its billing arrangement in that area.

How to become a Bijli Sakhi

1. Join or activate your self-help group. Membership of a functioning SHG under Bihan is the entry qualification. If your village has no group, ask the block Bihan office about forming one.
2. Register your interest at the cluster-level federation or the block office of the State Rural Livelihood Mission. Selection lists are drawn up there, not at the electricity office.
3. Wait for your panchayat to be taken up. The district administration and CSPDCL jointly decide which panchayats need Vidyut Sakhis, based on where meter reading coverage is weakest.
4. Attend the training in meter reading and data recording when called. In the Jashpur pilot, training preceded deployment for all 21 women.
5. Give your bank account details so that reading payments can be transferred. The account should be in your own name and Aadhaar-seeded.
6. Start work in your allotted area, recording readings each billing cycle and submitting the data as trained.

What documents will be asked for?

How the payment works

Payment is piece-rate: about Rs 12 for each meter read. A Bijli Sakhi who covers a few hundred connections in a month earns in the Rs 4,000 to Rs 6,000 range, which is what the Jashpur participants reported. The amount is transferred to her bank account through the electricity department's arrangement.

For a rural household, this is designed as supplementary income. Bihan's framing places it alongside a woman's existing farm, poultry, tailoring or enterprise income, with the combined total taking the household past the Rs 1 lakh a year mark that defines a Lakhpati Didi under the central initiative.

What to watch out for

• This is a pilot, not a statewide entitlement. Do not assume a vacancy exists in your panchayat. Ask at the block Bihan office before making plans.
• Earnings scale with the number of connections, so a sparsely electrified panchayat pays less than a dense one, for the same effort walking between houses.
• No fee is payable to anybody to be selected as a Bijli Sakhi. Selection is through the SHG structure, and any demand for money for a "posting" is fraudulent.
• Not a CSPDCL job. Neither the electricity company nor the livelihood mission has announced regularisation, and none should be assumed.

Where to get help

• Block office of the State Rural Livelihood Mission (Bihan) in your block, the working point of contact for selection and training.
• Cluster-level federation of your self-help group.
• CSPDCL distribution centre of your area, and the consumer helpline 1912 for supply and billing questions.
• District panchayat / Zila Panchayat CEO office, which coordinates the programme with the electricity department at district level.

Chhattisgarh had not published a consolidated scheme document, sanction order or district-wise coverage list for Bijli Sakhi Yojana at the time of checking. The figures in this guide — Rs 12 per reading, 21 women, Bagicha block of Jashpur district, and the Rs 4,000 to Rs 6,000 monthly range: come from field reporting on the pilot and should be treated as pilot-stage facts rather than statewide norms.