Finding a healthy way to cook

Syllabus: General Studies paper 3

Context:

In India, many women in poor households who use firewood or dung cakes for cooking spend long hours collecting firewood and making dung cakes. This is drudgery.

It affects their health and puts the safety of women and girls in jeopardy. Using firewood and dung cakes also leads to indoor pollution, as chulhas (firewood-based stoves) using these sources of energy release carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Both these gases have an adverse impact on the health of the family members. They also impact the environment.

Background:

The earlier solution to firewood cooking problem is smokeless or fuel-efficient chulhas for cooking — was introduced in the 1980s.

The National Programme on Improved Chulha was launched in 1984. This was backed by training programmes for making and maintaining these chulhas.

But these programmes failed when subsidies were withdrawn, governments lost interest, people could not be convinced to use the new chulhas and did not participate, target beneficiaries were not properly identified, and there was little quality control.

Introducing LPG: PAHAL scheme:

The Indian government then introduced Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in June 2013 under the PAHAL scheme on an experimental basis.

The scheme finally covered 291 districts. Access to this clean energy was expected to alleviate the public health burden posed by household air pollution on women. 

Drawbacks in PAHAL scheme:

• In India, the poor have limited access to cooking gas (LPG). The spread of LPG cylinders has been predominantly in the urban and semi-urban areas with the coverage mostly in middle class and affluent households.
• But there are serious health hazards associated with cooking based on fossil fuels. According to WHO estimates about 5 lakh deaths in India alone due to unclean cooking fuels?
• Most of these premature deaths were due to non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer.
• Indoor air pollution is also responsible for a significant number of acute respiratory illnesses in young children.
• According to experts, having an open fire in the kitchen is like burning 400 cigarettes an hour.
• Providing LPG connections to BPL households will ensure universal coverage of cooking gas in the country.
• This measure will empower women and protect their health. It will reduce drudgery and the time spent on cooking.
• It will also provide employment for rural youth in the supply chain of cooking gas.
• 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.

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMYU):

In 2016, the Modi government launched the LPG scheme as the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMYU).

NITI Aayog laid out a road map for universal access to LPG by 2025. The 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), and 94% of all households had an LPG connection as of September 2019, an increase from 56% in 2014-15.

Shortcomings:

• Studies found that the 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.
• However, as per evaluation studies, many LPG connection holders were found to still be using other fuels like firewood and dung cakes.
• This is because men, who usually make the decision of buying the refill, often do not agree to a refill which is expensive for the poor.
• Usually, as low value is attached to women’s time in production, the opportunity cost of women’s labour is low even when a capital subsidy is available, and women have to depend on traditional fuels.
• LPG is used for cooking when the opportunity cost of women’s labour is considered high, such as in the peak season in farming.
• On the other hand, urban households with reasonably high incomes and rural households belonging to upper income groups consider LPG refill a necessity for full cooking.
• Official data show that 48% rural households used LPG (2018) but only partially.

Ujjwala 2.0:

Despite these findings, the Prime Minister recently introduced Ujjwala 2.0 under which one crore additional PMUY connections aim to provide deposit-free LPG connections to those low-income families who could not be covered under the earlier phase of PMUY.

Under Ujjwala 2.0, migrants will not be required to submit ration cards or address proof. The amount allocated for this purpose is Rs. 14,073 crore this year.

Objectives of the scheme are:

• Empowering women and protecting their health.
• Reducing the serious health hazards associated with cooking based on fossil fuel.
• Reducing the number of deaths in India due to unclean cooking fuel.
• Preventing young children from significant number of acute respiratory illnesses caused due to indoor air pollution by burning the fossil fuel.

UJJWALA 2.0: One crore additional PMUY connections:

• In the Union budget for FY 21-22, provision for an additional one crore LPG connection under the PMUY scheme was announced.
• This one crore additional PMUY connections (under Ujjwala 2.0) aim to provide deposit-free LPG connections to those low-income families who could not be covered under the earlier phase of PMUY.
• Along with a deposit free LPG connection, Ujjwala 2.0 will provide first refill and hotplate (stove) free of cost to the beneficiaries. Also, the enrolment procedure will require minimum paperwork.
• In Ujjwala 2.0, migrants will not be required to submit ration cards or address proof.
• A self-declaration for both ‘family declaration’ and as a ‘proof of address’ will suffice. Ujjwala 2.0 will help achieve the Prime Minister’s vision of universal access to LPG. 

Conclusion:

LPG works well, but only for non-poor households. 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.

There is no doubt that crores of poor and middle-class women need better sources of cooking energy that are time saving, healthy, easily accessible and affordable.

The Hindu Link:

https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/finding-a-healthy-way-to-cook/article36067838.ece

Question- Controlling household emissions from poor families especially from cooking requires a more localised and indigenous solution which is affordable as well. Evaluate.