The government’s Pradhan Mantri Ujwala Yojna (PMUY) — whereby at least five crore people receive free gas connections — may not mean villagers would immediately start using gas connections, says a researcher from the University of British Columbia, Canada, who’s been exploring adoption trends in Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh.
According to him, the danger from indoor air pollution — when smoke and incompletely-burnt carbon particles in kitchens harm women — wasn’t yet a factor that drove people’s decision to use LPG stoves.
Factors such as the ease of using cook-stoves and the difference in the taste of food when prepared on chulhas (wood-fired stoves) were key in determining the popularity of cook-stoves over traditional methods.
‘Different strategy’
“Different communities, say a rural community in Kullu or another in Karnataka, need different communication strategies about the benefits of cook-stoves. The programme is currently aimed at getting as many people to use gas connections and so far I think it’s being implemented well,” said Hisham Zerriffi, associate professor in Forest Resources Management at the University of British Columbia.
One of Mr. Zeriffi’s study involved a randomised control trial of cooking technologies and fuels in eight villages (four in Karnataka and four in Himachal Pradesh) where his team distributed stoves under different payment conditions to see over the course of three years what stoves are chosen and used by rural Indian households.
The study also assessed how and where they collect their fuel-wood and how that changed after gaining access to new technologies and fuels. The findings are expected to appear in a research paper in the coming months.
