Skip to main content

Clean fuel? Modi's Ujjwala fails: Poor households 2.5 times "less likely" to use LPG

By Rajiv Shah
The Government of India's (GoI) Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, launched in 2016 in order to promote the use of clean cooking fuel to villagers by subsidizing liquid petroleum gas (LPG) connections, and thus reduce exposure to "harmful" indoor air pollution, has mainly helped the rural elite, a recent study, titled "Persistence of solid fuel use despite increases in LPG ownership: New survey evidence from rural north India", has said.
If GoI has contended that that by December 2018, six crore households received access to LPG through the Ujjwala Yojana, and that 90% of all Indian households owned an LPG cylinder and stove, the study, published by the Research Institute for Compassionate Economics (RICE), says, "The richest households are about 2.5 times more likely to exclusively use LPG than the poorest households."
According to the study, the poorest households "are less likely to have LPG than rich households, and "poor households are more likely to have received LPG through Ujjwala", but the latter may be "less likely to get a refill immediately after a cylinder becomes empty" because "refilling a cylinder costs almost half the average monthly per-capita expenditure."
Comparing the data of its 2018 survey on fuel use by revisiting households originally visited in 2014 in rural Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh, taken as “sample states",because they collectively represent over two-fifths of India’s rural population, the study admits that "three-quarters of households reported owning LPG at the time of the survey, up from about one-third in 2014."
Considering this "an important improvement", the study, however, says, "We also find that many LPG owners, and particularly those that received cylinders through Ujjwala, still use solid fuels to cook. Most LPG owners also own a stove that uses solid fuel, and among households owning both, about three-quarters of households used solid fuels."
Decile 1 represents poorest, decile 10 richest households
The survey, which covers 11 districts in rural north India, three districts in each of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh, and two districts in Rajasthan, finds that "37% used both LPG and solid fuels, and 36% cooked everything using solid fuels", adding, "98% of households with LPG also had chulha, already indicating continued solid fuel use among LPG owners."
The study, authored by a group of scholars, Aashish Gupta, Sangita Vyas, Payal Hathi, Nazar Khalid, Nikhil Srivastav, Dean Spears, and Diane Coffey, further says, "Only 27% of households reported exclusively using LPG to cook all the items of these six that they made the day before the survey. 37% reported making some items on LPG and some on chulha, and 36% made everything on chulha."
According to the study, "Majority of households owning LPG either mix fuels or still exclusively use chulha, and this is particularly true for households that received LPG through Ujjwala. The fact that many rural households mix fuel sources helps make sense of slow improvements in the fraction of households mainly using clean fuels for cooking." Even among the rich households, which are "less likely to exclusively use chulha, and more likely to exclusively use LPG, than poor households", less than 37% exclusively use LPG.
It notes, "Interestingly, rich households are actually more likely to mix fuel sources than poor households. About 47% of the richest LPG-owning households mixed fuel sources", adding,"Among households that have LPG, richer households are more likely to use it compared to poorer household, but most of these rich households still use chulha on a daily basis."
Noting that the use of solid fuel remains a much cheaper source for cooking for the poorer households, the study says, "Among households that have chulha, which is almost all households, 68% report exclusively making or collecting solid fuels on their own, and 24% report making or collecting some solid fuels on their own, and buying some."
It adds, "Because so many households do not buy solid fuels for regular use, the median cost per month for dung or wood among all households that have chulha is Rs 0, and the mean is Rs. 214. Among households that buy solid fuels for regular use, the mean cost per month is Rs. 737."
"In comparison", the study says, "Among households reporting they had refilled their cylinder at least once, the mean reported cost of a cylinder refill is Rs 876." No doubt, it says, "Some households receive the LPG subsidy in their bank accounts, making the net cost of a cylinder cheaper than Rs. 876", but among households that have an LPG cylinder, only 51% reported receiving the subsidy.
It states, "Not all respondents knew the last subsidy amount, but those that did reported receiving almost Rs 300, on average. Therefore, for these households, the average net cost of one LPG refill was around Rs 600." Further, "35% of all LPG-owning households, and 60% of households that received LPG through Ujjwala, report not receiving the subsidy at all."
---
Click HERE for the study

Comments

Uma Sheth said…
It is the same story--roads, electricity, internet - nothing seems to be what the government tells us.

TRENDING

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.

1857 War of Independence... when Hindu-Muslim separatism, hatred wasn't an issue

"The Sepoy Revolt at Meerut", Illustrated London News, 1857  By Shamsul Islam* Large sections of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs unitedly challenged the greatest imperialist power, Britain, during India’s First War of Independence which began on May 10, 1857; the day being Sunday. This extraordinary unity, naturally, unnerved the firangees and made them realize that if their rule was to continue in India, it could happen only when Hindus and Muslims, the largest two religious communities were divided on communal lines.

N-power plant at Mithi Virdi: CRZ nod is arbitrary, without jurisdiction

By Krishnakant* A case-appeal has been filed against the order of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and others granting CRZ clearance for establishment of intake and outfall facility for proposed 6000 MWe Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi, District Bhavnagar, Gujarat by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) vide order in F 11-23 /2014-IA- III dated March 3, 2015. The case-appeal in the National Green Tribunal at Western Bench at Pune is filed by Shaktisinh Gohil, Sarpanch of Jasapara; Hajabhai Dihora of Mithi Virdi; Jagrutiben Gohil of Jasapara; Krishnakant and Rohit Prajapati activist of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a notice to the MoEF&CC, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and case is kept for hearing on August 20, 2015. Appeal No. 23 of 2015 (WZ) is filed, a...

Spirit of leadership vs bondage: Of empowered chairman of 100-acre social forestry coop

By Gagan Sethi*  This is about Khoda Sava, a young Dalit belonging to the Vankar sub-caste, who worked as a bonded labourer in a village near Vadgam in Banskantha district of North Gujarat. The year was 1982. Khoda had taken a loan of Rs 7,000 from the village sarpanch, a powerful landlord doing money-lending as his side business. Khoda, who had taken the loan for marriage, was landless. Normally, villagers would mortgage their land if they took loan from the sarpanch. But Khoda had no land. He had no option but to enter into a bondage agreement with the sarpanch in order to repay the loan. Working in bondage on the sarpanch’s field meant that he would be paid Rs 1,200 per annum, from which his loan amount with interest would be deducted. He was also obliged not to leave the sarpanch’s field and work as daily wager somewhere else. At the same time, Khoda was offered meal once a day, and his wife job as agricultural worker on a “priority basis”. That year, I was working as secretary...

Two more "aadhaar-linked" Jharkhand deaths: 17 die of starvation since Sept 2017

Kaleshwar's sons Santosh and Mantosh Counterview Desk A fact-finding team of the Right to Feed Campaign, pointing towards the death of two more persons due to starvation in Jharkhand, has said that this has happened because of the absence of aadhaar, leading to “persistent lack of food at home and unavailability of any means of earning.” It has disputed the state government claims that these deaths are due to reasons other than starvation, adding, the authorities have “done nothing” to reduce the alarming state of food insecurity in the state.

Proposed Modi yatra from Jharkhand an 'insult' of Adivasi hero Birsa Munda: JMM

Counterview Desk  The civil rights network, Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JMM), which claims to have 30 grassroots groups under its wings, has decided to launch Save Democracy campaign to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vikasit Bharat Sankalp Yatra to be launched on November 15 from the village of legendary 19th century tribal independence leader Birsa Munda from Ulihatu (Khunti district).

Fate of Yamuna floodplain still hangs in "balance" despite National Green Tribunal rap on Sri Sri event

By Ashok Shrimali* While the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday reportedly pulled up the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for granting permission to hold spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival on the banks of Yamuna, the chief petitioners against the high-profile event Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan has declared, the “fate of the floodplain still hangs in balance.”

Ground reality: Israel would a remain Jewish state, attempt to overthrow it will be futile

By NS Venkataraman*  Now that truce has been arrived at between Israel and Hamas for a period of four days and with release of a few hostages from both sides, there is hope that truce would be further extended and the intensity of war would become significantly less. This likely “truce period” gives an opportunity for the sworn supporters and bitter opponents of Hamas as well as Israel and the observers around the world to introspect on the happenings and whether this war could have been avoided. There is prolonged debate for the last several decades as to whom the present region that has been provided to Jews after the World War II belong. View of some people is that Jews have been occupants earlier and therefore, the region should belong to Jews only. However, Christians and those belonging to Islam have also lived in this regions for long period. While Christians make no claim, the dispute is between Jews and those who claim themselves to be Palestinians. In any case...

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...