Context:

• We know that, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana is a scheme of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas for providing LPG connections to women from Below Poverty Line (BPL) households.
• Under the scheme, five crore (now 8 crores) LPG connections are to be provided to BPL households.
• PMUY aims to safeguard the health of women & children by providing them with a clean cooking fuel.

Recently, the Union government claimed that it has provided over 51 million—51,407,565 at last official count—free cooking gas connections, distributed in standard-sized cylinders familiar to most people in India.

However, most households in rural Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh—despite having an LPG connection—have not switched over to exclusive use of gas.

What RICE survey says?

According to Research Institute for Compassionate Economics (RICE), a non-profit research organization, which surveyed 1,550 households in late 2018 to know their cooking fuel choices –

• Burning solid fuel for cooking causes high levels of indoor air pollution and this smoke is dangerous. Solid-fuel use not only affects the health of the family that uses it, but is also harmful to their neighbours.
• Between 2014 and 2018, the region saw 44.2 percentage point increase in households with a cooking gas connection.
• In fact, over three-fourths of all households in Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh now have LPG connections, and 43% of them reported having received one from the government.
• But almost all households still own a chulha.
• As many as 37% of the households reported having used both a chulha and LPG stove the day before they were asked as part of the survey exercise.
• And about 36% were found to be only using solid fuel for cooking.

Reasons:

• Poverty and high cost of LPG – Since they are poor, and the cost of a gas cylinder or re-filling it forms a large portion of their monthly expenditure, Ujjwala beneficiaries are less likely to exclusively use LPG for cooking.
• Beliefs and attitudes of people – Over two-thirds of the respondents considered cooking with LPG easier and healthier for the person who cooked. However, over 85% of the survey’s respondents also saw solid fuel as a better option for taste and the health of family members eating the food. Therefore, a household’s fuel use is associated with its beliefs.

Conclusion:

• But the effect of air pollution on people’s health is a scientific fact. By delivering so many LPG connections, the government has finished its job. However, the real goal has not, and it may take a long while before it does.
• If the Ujjwala scheme is to accomplish its goal, which is the improvement of cooking conditions for women and enhancement of Indian citizens’ health, the government needs to work on changing the people’s attitudes and beliefs. This could be a long-drawn process.