Barriers to access, adoption and sustained use of cleaner fuels among low income households: An exploratory study from Delhi and Jharkhand, India

This report was released by Asar Social Impact Advisors, a Karnataka-based research organisation, in August 2023. It was authored by Vidyuth Sreenivasan, Neha Saigal and Saumya Shrivastava at Asar.Household air pollution remains a major health hazard for women in low-income households in India, many of whom continue to use biomass for cooking and heating. Transition to cleaner fuels like liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and their sustained use remains a challenge for a significant proportion of low-income households in India. This is despite the government’s efforts to improve the coverage of LPG through the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY).The study forming the basis of this report was conducted in Delhi as well as Lohardaga and Senha blocks in Jharkhand, to understand the barriers to women’s access, adoption and sustained use of clean cooking fuels. It focused on low-income households and recorded their perceptions around household air pollution and its impacts on women’s health. The report proposes recommendations at community, district and state level to address the issue and enable transition to clean cooking.