Gujarat's 16% urban, 80% rural households use firewood for cooking, much higher than all-India average

By Rajiv Shah
A new Government of India report has revealed that, despite huge claims of rise in livelihood standards over the last one decade, the use of firewood and chips as the chief source of cooking is higher in Gujarat compared to most of India. In Gujarat, 79.7 per cent of rural and 15.9 per cent of urban households use firewood and chips as against the all-India average of 67.3 per cent and 14 per cent respectively.
The figures in a National Sample Survey Organization survey show that, in Gujarat’s rural areas, 13.9 per cent of households use LPG for cooking, as against the all-India average of 15 per cent. As for the urban households, Gujarat’s 62 per cent households use LPG for cooking, as against the all-India average of 68.4 per cent.
The rural areas of states which have higher dependence on LPG – considered environmentally safe and a symbol of using “better” cooking techniques – than Gujarat are Andhra Pradesh (28.9 per cent), Assam (17.2 per cent), Haryana (26.7 per cent), Karnataka (14.17 per cent), Kerala (30.8 per cent), Maharashtra (23.1 per cent), Punjab (30.9 per cent), and Tamil Nadu (37.2 per cent).

As for the urban areas, the data suggest, the states with a higher use of LPG for cooking are Andhra Pradesh (77.3 per cent), Assam (71 per cent), Haryana (86.5 per cent), Karnataka (64 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (65 per cent), Maharashtra (74.5 per cent), Punjab (75.4 per cent), Rajasthan (71.6 per cent), Tamil Nadu (70.9 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (66.8 per cent).
The data are considered significant, as they come with increasing realization among experts that firewood and chips are a major source of greenhouse gas emission in India. They lead to the release of black carbon, which lead to severe air pollution, and are also a root cause of cardiovascular and respiratory related deaths. Official documents advise the use of LPG or improved biogas cooking as an urgent alternative.
Wood smoke is said to contain "fine particulate matter, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, sulfur dioxide and various irritant gases such as nitrogen oxides that can scar the lungs". It also contains "chemicals known or suspected to be carcinogens, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and dioxin", say experts, pointing towards how it interferes with normal lung development in infants and children.

A further breakup reveals that the dependence on firewood and chips for cooking is particularly high (92.6 per cent) among rural Gujarat’s tribal households, who make up 15 per cent of the state’s population. This is against the all-India average of 87 per cent.
As for Gujarat’s urban areas, where tribals make up large number of the migrant population involved in different types of construction activities, a whopping 29.5 per cent of the tribal households use firewood and chips for cooking, as against the all-India average of 23.9 per cent.
The situation with other sections of the vulnerable population of Gujarat is almost similar. In Gujarat, 77.7 per cent of the rural scheduled caste (SC) households and 14.5 per cent of urban SC households use firewood and chips for cooking, as against the all-India average of 69.8 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively.

As for the OBCs, Gujarat’s 82.7 per cent of rural and 31.9 per cent of urban households use firewood and chips for cooking, as against the all-India average of 66.4 per cent and 17.7 per cent respectively. Conversely, a lesser per cent of economically weaker sections use LPG in Gujarat.
Thus, the data, for instance, show that just about 0.3 per cent of the agricultural workers use LPG as fuel, as against the all-India average of 4.6 per cent. The states with even lesser per cent of agricultural workers using LPG are just four -- Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Uttarkhand and West Bengal.

Comments

Hardik Parikh said…

Please quote the name of the report and please provide the link to the report in case it available online.

August 10, 2015

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Sardar Patel was on Nathuram Godse's hit list: Noted Marathi writer Sadanand More

Sadanand More (right) By A Representative In a surprise revelation, well-known Gujarati journalist Hari Desai has claimed that Nathuram Godse did not just kill Mahatma Gandhi, but also intended to kill Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Citing a voluminous book authored by Sadanand More, “Lokmanya to Mahatma”, Volume II, translated from Marathi into English last year, Desai says, nowadays, there is a lot of talk about conspiracy to kill Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, but little is known about how the Sardar was also targeted.

Bihar’s land at ₹1 per acre for Adani sparks outrage, NAPM calls it crony capitalism

By A Representative The National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) has strongly condemned the Bihar government’s decision to lease 1,050 acres of land in Pirpainti, Bhagalpur district, to Adani Power for a 2,400 MW coal-based thermal power project.

Counterview

Search This Blog