Clean Fuel for Cooking: The Journey So Far…

Santosh Kumar Sahu

Abstract: The objectives of SDG 7.1 are related to access to electricity, cleaner fuel and technology. The current policy of PMUY focuses on these goals by installing LPG cylinders to the rural and BPL households in India. In this article, the focus is to understand the state-level adoption of clean energy through PMUY. This policy has encouraged rural households to use clean cooking fuel which is a positive step in minimising the negative externalities of indoor air pollutions and related health hazards.

Keywords: PMUY; SDG; LPG Cylinders; Clean Fuel; India

The Context

A growing body of literature concludes that incomplete combustion products and black carbon from traditional biomass burning make a significant contribution to climate change. Further, indoor air pollution from traditional biomass burning contributes to serious health problems, particularly cancer and respiratory infections. The objective of SDG 7.1 indicates to increase access to clean cooking. From 2011 to 2018, the share of the population using biomass and kerosene declined by 16 per cent. However, in 2018 an estimated 680 million people in India still do not have access to clean cooking solutions and mostly rely on biomass for cooking (IEA, 2018). As indoor air pollution has severe health impacts on the health conditions and LPG is nearly not affordable to most of the households in India, the Government of India designed the “Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY)” scheme. This policy benefits the women living below the poverty line in rural India, with free LPG connection, subsidised refills and instruction on how to use LPG for cooking. The Salient features of the PMUY scheme are as follows:

• LPG connection is released in the name of an adult woman of the BPL family, subject to the condition that no LPG connection exists in the name of any family member of the household. 
• Eligible families are identified through the Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) list. 
• The scheme covers the cash assistance up to Rs. 1600.00 for providing new LPG connection, and this cash assistance is provided by the Central Government. 
• The customer bears the cost of Hot Plate and purchase of the first refill. The customers have the option to take Hot Plate on purchase of first refill or both on a loan basis from OMCs at zero interest, and the same is recovered through EMIs. 

This scheme has reached to 80 million households by September 2019, against the initial target of 50 million LPG connections. These statistics is an indication of acceptance and adaptation of modern cooking fuel by rural households. The international energy agencies such as IEA explain this acceptance to Blue Flame Revolution. The benefit of this programme includes improving the health conditions by reducing exposure to indoor air pollution of the rural BPL households in general, and for the women and children in particular. This programme will also help households to eliminate the time engaged in the collection of fuelwoods for cooking. A recent report of the IEA (2008) explains that households that have received a free connection and subsidy vis PAHAL programme buy around 3.5 cylinders of LPG per year. This is helping in displacing around one-quarter of the fuelwood used in the households or six per cent of total biomass used in Indian households.

Inter-State Variations

Detailed state-level data on distribution and refill of LPG for cooking purpose through PMUY scheme, is given in the PMUY website of Government of India. Form this data; one can understand the state-level adoption and use of LPG and hence can attribute to the demand for LPG cylinder at the state-level. This inter-state variations of LPG use can help design better energy policy for both aggregate and disaggregate levels. Focusing on the installed connections until 2018, we see that Uttar Pradesh has installed the highest number of LPG connections through this policy. Bihar is the second state in the list of top five best performing states. in terms of installation of LPG connections in aggregate, followed by West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Similarly, the bottom five states in terms of installation of LPG connection though this policy are Chandigarh (46), Goa (1052), Sikkim (5442), Puducherry (12814) and Mizoram (25080).

One-time installation of LPG connections is not the only way to explain the inter-state variations in adoption and use of clean fuel for cooking. We must also compute the returning rate of customers in refilling cylinders. The national average of returning customers is calculated to be 77.71 per cent. The best performing states in this case above the national average are Goa (96.86%), Delhi (96.56%), Haryana (94.44%), Puducherry (91.97%) and Uttarakhand (88.09%). The returning customers seem to be higher for states that are not listed in the best performing states in aggregate LPG connections such as Goa and Puducherry. Similarly, the bottom five states on returning customers are Chhattisgarh (47.71%), Tripura (55.52%), Jharkhand (56.30%), Meghalaya (56.30%) and Assam (63.96%). The next question is, how often households refill LPG cylinders? The national average of refilling cylinders stands at 2.58 per connections. However, states such as Haryana (4.96%), Goa (4.68%), Delhi (4.06%), Uttarakhand (3.90%) and Gujarat (3.72%) have refilled more than the national average, and Telangana (1.29%), Tripura (1.44%), Chhattisgarh (1.52%), Meghalaya (1.61%) and Assam (1.68%) are the bottom five states in refilling rate per connection.

The above discussion explains that there is an inter-state variation in adoption and use of LPG cylinders at household levels. The reasons may be related to behavioural aspects of adaptation and use, effectiveness in implementation of the policy, distributors density, infrastructure, socio-economic issues etc. In understanding some of these important concerns a telephonic survey was conducted at household level for Odisha state that stands moderately in installation and use of LPG from this policy.      

Top 5 States in installed LPG connections till 2018

Source: Data collected from PMUY website.

The Case of Odisha Households

Duflo et al. (2008) conclude “there is a strong correlation between using a stove with cleaner fuels and having better respiratory health, suggesting that the use of traditional stoves may indeed be a culprit behind these high levels of respiratory disease”. This research was conducted for two southern districts of Odisha. This paper argued that most of the rural households do not have access to cleaner fuels, and hence exposed to various respiratory diseases. In this line of research, the PMUY is definitely an advanced policy at rural household levels.

Odisha stands at the seventh position in installation of LPG cylinders; bottom sixth in the rate of returning customers and rate of refill to be  2.30 cylinders per person. Therefore, even having higher installation, Odisha is not able to perform better in terms of the rate of returning customers and refill. As per the Socio Economic Caste Census of 2011, Odisha has 51,442 rural villages and 107 urban towns and majority of households (87.28%) live in rural areas. Therefore, this policy has larger implications for the state. To understand the low rate of refill and returning consumer, I performed a quick telephonic survey in the southern districts of Ganjam, Rayagada and Koraput. Part of this sample, two districts are part of the KBK region of the state (Rayagada and Koraput). Two hundred thirty-six households were surveyed with minimal questions related to the LPG connections and use.

A quick look at the data indicates 81 households are female-headed and 155 households are male-headed. Around 29 per cent of the female-headed and 47 per cent of the male-headed households are the beneficiaries of this scheme. From the employment point of view, those engaged in agriculture activities and daily labors are the ones who are beneficiaries of this policy. One of the critical reasons for not refilling the LPG cylinder is the distance from home to the distribution center/agent. From the telephonic survey, it was found that the number of beneficiaries drops down beyond 11 KM distance from the distribution center. Only 41 per cent of the sample households use LPG for cooking and rest believes that using LPG is an expensive fuel for cooking activities, as these household use multiple fuel sources for cooking. These results are indicative only, an extensive survey with robust survey instrument is required for quantitative analysis for a better understanding of the issues at the local level on switching to cleaner fuel and compute economic and health benefits of PMUY.

What is next?

Fuel Switching seems to be one of the hurdles of rural households in India. In this case, it is essential to educate beneficiaries on the positive health impact of cleaner fuel against traditional cooking fuels. The density of distributional centres is an essential measure that the policymakers have to focus on. Increased coverage of LPG will make the financial debt incurred by the government self-liquidating in the long-run due to increased revenue from LPG usage. As the share of the population relying on the use of traditional biomass for cooking will continue to decline, there is a scope in improvising and formulating better LPG policies in India to create an energy-efficient economy.

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