Finding A Healthy Way To Cook

Context: As questions arise over the Ujjwala scheme’s success, it would be prudent to introduce alternative clean sources of energy.

Issues with using firewood or dung cakes as cooking fuel

• Gender perspective: Many women in poor households have to spend long hours collecting firewood and making dung cakes, thus restricting their engagements and affects their health and safety.
• Environmental and health perspective: Major source of indoor pollution as chulhas (firewood-based stoves) using these sources of energy release carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
• Policy perspective: Smokeless or fuel-efficient chulhas for cooking failed because of the following - 
• It cannot sustain without government subsidies, and governments lost interest. 
• People could not be convinced to use the new chulhas and did not participate, 
• Targeting of beneficiaries was not properly done, and there was little quality control.

Policy initiatives towards adoption of LPG as cooking fuel

• In 2013, the PAHAL scheme was introduced on an experimental basis. The direct benefit transfer scheme was expected to reduce the LPG transition burden for lower-income families.
• In 2016, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) was launched: With an objective to make clean cooking fuel such as LPG available to rural and deprived households.
• NITI Aayog laid out a road map for universal access to LPG by 2025. 
• Subsidy for LPG increased from Rs 12,000 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 21,000 crore in 2017-18 (Petroleum Analysis and Planning Cell, 2018).
• 94% of all households had an LPG connection as of Sep 2019, an increase from 56% in 2014-15.
• In 2021, Ujjwala 2.0 was launched: One crore additional PMUY deposit-free connections to be provided to those low-income families who could not be covered under the earlier phase of PMUY.

Critical review of Ujjwala Yojana

• Firewood and dung cakes usage still continuing: This is because men, who usually make decision of buying the refill, often do not agree to a refill which is expensive for the poor.
• Partial adoption of LPG: Poor use LPG mainly for making tea or snacks while they continue to use firewood or cow dung for their main cooking, as these sources of fuel are free of cost and easily available.
• Official data show that 48% of rural households used LPG (2018) but only partially. 
• Continued Gender Bias: The core resistance to LPG adoption is due to the low value attached to women’s time in production, and thus, the opportunity cost of women’s labour is considered low even with a capital subsidy.
• Administrative challenges: Including the distance to LPG distribution centres, long waiting time, and rising costs of LPG cylinders.
• Policy misses: It is clear that the planners have not looked at the evaluation studies of Ujjwala 1.0 and the official data on the performance of the scheme. 

Way forward: No one size fit for all; there is a need to offer a set of energy sources to households so that each of them finds suitable energy for itself - 

• Crores of poor and middle-class women need better sources of cooking energy that are time-saving, healthy, easily accessible and affordable.
• Others need affordable alternatives to choose from, such as solar energy and solar cookers, smokeless chulhas, biogas plants and electric cookers where electricity is cheap.
• Good research and development efforts need to be made in public and private sectors to explore these alternatives.