(FE)
India has been gradually succeeding in the provision of basic needs to its citizens—from safe drinking water, to food security, to schooling. Access to electricity for all is now nearing completion, with about 1,25,000 villages and over 50 crore people having gotten access over the last decade. All remaining households in the country are expected to get electricity by 2020. The vital need of clean energy for cooking was not a major priority earlier. India had over 80 crore people using firewood and cow dung cakes for cooking. Smoke from traditional biomass, which is essentially equivalent to secondary smoke from cigarettes, has well-researched and similar adverse health effects. Women, in particular, have been the real sufferers. According to some estimates, there are about 5 lakh avoidable deaths every year as a result in our country. In addition, there is the impact on overall air pollution, which affects the health of all.
This issue has now got focus with the Ujjwala scheme started in 2016 (the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana). The below poverty line (BPL) rural households are being given a cooking gas connection and a cylinder for free. The plan is to cover 8 crore households. While it is too early for any meaningful evaluation, there are two related issues that have drawn attention. Unlike urban areas where there usually is home delivery of the gas cylinder to the consumer, in rural areas the consumer is required to go to the dealer to collect the gas cylinder, and this needs at least half a day, which is a real additional cost. The related issue is the one of affordability. The refill rate, according to some sources, is only two to four cylinders in a year, against the estimated needs of nine refills in a year. Further, the creation of a distribution network to cover all the rural households is a gigantic task, with petroleum companies having drawn up investment plans of Rs 30,000 crore to develop the needed infrastructure.
