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NEWS ALERTS | Clean fuel usage depends on socio-economic factors
Clean fuel usage depends on socio-economic factors

Clean fuel usage depends on socio-economic factors

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published Published on Aug 1, 2015   modified Modified on May 6, 2016

Did anyone ever tell you that there exists rural-urban, class as well as caste gap in households’ access to clean fuel for cooking and lighting? This has been revealed by a new report from the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO). (Please see the links below).

The NSS 68th round report entitled Energy Sources of Indian Households for Cooking and Lighting has found that more than two-third of urban households used LPG in 2011-12, whereas almost the same percentage of rural households relied on the solid fuel ‘firewood and chips’ for cooking. Only 15 percent of rural households used LPG for cooking, a known clean fuel unlike solid fuels or biomass. (Please check chart 1).

For the purpose of lighting, nearly three-fourth of rural households used electricity and a little more than one-fourth used kerosene. Although 96.1 percent of urban households used electricity as primary source of energy for lighting, only 3.2 percent of such households relied on kerosene.

Trends in usage of fuel for cooking in rural and urban India
 
Chart 1
Source: Energy Sources of Indian Households for Cooking and Lighting, 2011-12, NSS 68th Round (July 2011-June 2012)

The percentage of rural households using firewood & chips for cooking has declined from 78.2 percent in 1993-94 to 67.3 percent in 2011-12. On the contrary, the percentage of rural households using LPG for cooking has increased by roughly 8 times from 1.9 percent in 1993-94 to 15.0 percent in 2011-12. (Please check chart 1).

There has been a declining trend in the percentage of rural households using coke/ coal, dung cake and kerosene between 1999-2000 and 2009-10, after which the trend reverses.

The percentage of urban households using firewood & chips for cooking has nearly halved from 29.9 percent in 1993-94 to 14.0 percent in 2011-12. The percentage of urban households using LPG for cooking has more than doubled from 29.6 percent in 1993-94 to 68.4 percent in 2011-12.

A secular declining trend in the percentage of urban households using coke/ coal, dung cake and kerosene between 1993-94 and 2011-12 could be observed.

Class and caste aspect of clean fuel utilization for cooking

The report from NSSO shows that the percentage of rural households using LPG for cooking rises steadily with the increase in monthly per capita consumer expenditure (MPCE) level. A similar trend could be more or less noticed in urban India too. This means richer households are more likely to cook using LPG.

In rural areas, the incidence of use of firewood & chips was highest for casual labour in agriculture households (80.4 percent), followed by casual labour in non-agriculture households (72.9 percent). Similarly, in urban areas, the incidence of use of firewood & chips was highest for casual labour (41.2 percent). It is noteworthy that firewood & chips are considered as the cheapest forms of energy, although they cause indoor air pollution.  

In rural areas, LPG was used for cooking mostly by regular wage/ salary earning households (44.5 percent), followed by self-employed in non-agriculture (24.5 percent) and ‘others’ category (22.0 percent). In contrast to this, LPG was used by merely 4.6 percent of casual labour in agriculture households.

In urban areas, the percentage of households using LPG as primary energy source for cooking was highest among regular wage/salary earning (76.6 percent), followed by the self-employed (73.5 percent), ‘others’ (56.9 percent), and then casual labour households (38.9 percent).

It has been found by the NSS 68th round report that in rural areas firewood & chips were used by 87.0 percent of Scheduled Tribe (ST) households, 69.8 percent of Scheduled Caste (SC) households, 66.4 percent of Other Backward Classes (OBC) households, and just 57.0 percent of 'others' or general category households. However, in such areas, LPG was used by 5.3 percent of ST households, 8.9 percent of SC households, 16 percent of OBC households, and 23.3 percent of 'others' or general category households. This shows that the general or forward caste households enjoyed better access to cleaner fuel as compared to other castes in rural areas.

In urban areas, firewood & chips were used by 23.9 percent of ST households, 23.0 percent of SC households, 17.7 percent of OBC households, and just 6.5 percent of 'others' or forward caste category households. However, in such areas, LPG was used by 51.6 percent of ST households, 56.8 percent of SC households, 66 percent of OBC households, and 76.2 percent of 'others' or general category households. This trend indicates that the forward caste households relished better access to cleaner fuel as compared to other castes in urban areas.

How is clean fuel use related to health?

As revealed by the latest NSS report, mostly poor households and households from deprived communities cook and heat their homes using solid fuels such as firewood & chips, coke/ coal, dung cake etc. in open fires and leaky stoves. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), such inefficient cooking fuels and technologies cause high levels of household air pollution with a range of health-damaging pollutants, including small soot particles that penetrate deep into the lungs. In poorly ventilated dwellings, indoor smoke can be 100 times higher than acceptable levels for small particles, cautions WHO. Exposure is particularly high among women and young children since they spend considerably more time near the domestic hearth.  

The WHO informs us that in India outdoor air pollution is a major concern in urban areas, whereas indoor air pollution due to use of biomass as fuel for domestic purposes is the main concern in rural areas.

A draft resolution proposed by delegations of 14 countries during the 68th World Health Assembly on 26 May, 2015 acknowledges that globally nearly 4.3 million deaths occur each year, mostly in developing countries, from exposure to household (indoor) air pollution and 3.7 million deaths each year are attributable to ambient (outdoor) air pollution.

The report entitled Health and the Environment: Addressing the Health Impact of Air Pollution by the Secretariat at 68th World Health Assembly says that exposure to air pollutants, including fine particulate matter, is a leading risk factor for non-communicable diseases in adults, including ischemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and cancer, and poses a considerable health threat to current and future generations. Globally, half of the deaths due to acute lower respiratory infections, including pneumonia in children aged less than five years, may be attributed to household air pollution, making it a leading risk factor for childhood mortality.

The key findings of the 68th round NSS report entitled Energy Sources of Indian Households for Cooking and Lighting are as follows:

• At the national level, firewood & chips were used by more than two-third (67.3 percent) of rural households, followed by LPG, which was used by 15.0 percent households. Only 9.6 percent and 1.1 percent of the rural households used dung cake and coke & coal, respectively as primary source. The remaining 4.9 percent households used other sources, i.e. gobar gas, charcoal, electricity and others. 1.3 percent rural households did not have any arrangement for cooking.

• LPG was used by 68.4 percent of the urban households at the national level, followed by firewood and chips, used by 14.0 percent households. 5.7 percent of the households used kerosene, 2.1 percent of households used coke & coal and only 1.3 percent of the urban households used dung cake as primary source for cooking. The remaining 1.5 percent households used other sources. Noticeably, 6.9 percent of urban households did not have any arrangement for cooking.

• At the national level, 72.7 percent of rural households and 96.1 percent of urban households used electricity as primary source of energy for lighting. The remaining households, except for 0.5 percent in both rural and urban India, used kerosene.

Energy for cooking in rural areas

• In rural areas, the percentage of households depending on firewood & chips for cooking exceeded 56.0 percent in all major states except Punjab and Haryana. In Chhattisgarh 93.2 percent of rural households used firewood & chips for cooking, which is the highest among all major states, followed by Rajasthan (89.3 percent) and Odisha (87.0 percent).

• Dung cake was one of the major fuels for cooking for 33.4 percent of rural households in Uttar Pradesh, 30.3 percent in Punjab, 24.4 percent in Haryana, 20.8 percent in Bihar and 10.6 percent in Madhya Pradesh.

• Compared to other states, incidence of use of LPG for cooking in rural households was much higher for Tamil Nadu (37.2 percent), Kerala (30.8 percent) and Punjab (30.5 percent). However, for Punjab, incidence of LPG use was almost at par with firewood & chips (30.5 percent) and dung cake (30.3 percent). Use of LPG in rural households was least in Chhattisgarh (1.5 percent) preceded by Jharkhand (2.9 percent) and Odisha (3.9 percent).

• Use of coke & coal as primary source of energy for cooking was evidently reported in rural Jharkhand (14.3 percent) and rural West Bengal (6.5 percent).

• Maharashtra (3.8 percent) and Andhra Pradesh (2.7 percent) are top two states reporting ‘no cooking arrangement’ in rural areas.

Energy for cooking in urban areas

• Nearly 40 percent or more of the urban households used LPG as principal fuel for cooking in all the major States. It was highest in Haryana (86.5% households), followed by Andhra Pradesh (77.3 percent) and Punjab (75.4 percent). It is lowest in Chhattisgarh (39.8 percent).

• Dependence on firewood & chips for cooking in urban areas was highest in Odisha (36.5 percent households) closely followed by Kerala (36.3 percent) and Chhattisgarh (34.7 percent).

• Compared to rural areas, use of kerosene as primary source of energy for cooking more prevalent in urban areas, especially in Gujarat (10.5 percent), Maharashtra (10.1 percent) and Punjab (10.0 percent).

• Use of coke & coal as primary source of energy for cooking in urban areas was markedly reported in Jharkhand (31.1 percent), West Bengal (13.5 percent) and Chhattisgarh (11.3 percent).

• At the national level, ‘No cooking arrangement’ was reported by 6.9 percent of the urban households. The highest proportions of households of this category were seen in Karnataka (13.9 percent), Tamil Nadu (9.2 percent) and Andhra Pradesh (9.1 percent).

Energy for lighting in rural areas

• In rural India, where nearly three-fourth of all households used electricity and slightly more than one-fourth used kerosene, inter-state variation of the use of primary source of energy for lighting was much greater. The percentage of rural households using kerosene was as high as 73.5 percent in Bihar, 58.5 percent in Uttar Pradesh, 43.3 percent in Assam, 36.8 percent in Jharkhand, 32.3 percent in Odisha and 29.3 percent in West Bengal. It was, by contrast, as low as 1.5 percent in both Punjab and Haryana, 2.1 percent in Andhra Pradesh, 3.1 percent in Tamil Nadu, and 3.3 percent in Kerala.

• As most of the remaining households used electricity as primary source of energy, the proportion of rural households using electricity were very high in seven major states, namely, Andhra Pradesh (97.6 percent), Punjab (97.4 percent) , Tamil Nadu (96.9 percent) , Kerala (96.2 percent), Karnataka (95.2 percent), Haryana (95.1 percent) and Gujarat (93.2 percent). On the other hand, it is as low as 25.8 percent in Bihar and 40.4 percent in Uttar Pradesh.

• The percentage of rural households using electricity for lighting has increased from 37.1 percent in 1993-94 to 72.7 percent in 2011-12.

• The percentage of rural households using kerosene for lighting has declined from 62.1 percent in 1993-94 to 26.5 percent in 2011-12.

• In rural areas, the proportion of households using kerosene for lighting is seen to fall monotonically with increase in MPCE. However, in such areas, the proportion of households using electricity for lighting is seen to rise monotonically with increase in MPCE.

• In rural areas, the percentage of households using electricity was highest for the household type ‘regular wage/salary earning’ (90.9 percent), followed by the ‘self-employed in non-agriculture’ (75.0 percent), the ‘others’ category (72.2 percent), and ‘self-employed in agriculture’ (71.2 percent).

• In rural areas, the percentage of households using electricity was highest for the social group ‘Others’ or general category (80.1 percent), followed by the OBC (72.1 percent), the ST (71.1 percent) and the SC (66.8 percent). The reverse pattern was evident in case of kerosene.

Energy for lighting in urban areas

• In urban India, the proportion of households using kerosene as primary energy source for lighting was 3.2 percent or less in ten out of seventeen major states. The remaining seven states having higher percentages are arranged in descending order as Bihar (17.2 percent), Uttar Pradesh (10.8 percent), Assam (7.9 percent), Gujarat (5.2 percent), West Bengal (5.0 percent), Chhattisgarh (3.6 percent) and Odisha (3.5 percent).

• The proportion of urban households dependent on electricity for lighting was more than 90 percent in all major States except Assam (89.7 percent), Uttar Pradesh (88.1 percent) and Bihar (81.2 percent).

• The percentage of urban households using electricity for lighting has increased from 82.8 percent in 1993-94 to 96.1 percent in 2011-12.

• The percentage of urban households using kerosene for lighting has declined from 16.1 percent in 1993-94 to 3.2 percent in 2011-12.

• In urban areas, the proportion of households using kerosene for lighting is seen to fall monotonically with increase in MPCE. The proportion of urban households using electricity is seen to rise from 78.1 percent in the lowest MPCE fractile to 99.0 percent in the top MPCE fractile in urban India.

• In urban areas, the percentage of households using electricity for lighting was highest (97.8 percent) for the regular wage/salary earning households, followed by the ‘others’ category (96.8 percent), the self-employed (95.8 percent), and the casual labour households (91.3 percent).

• In urban areas, the percentage of households using electricity for lighting was highest (97.8 percent) for the ‘Others’ or general category, followed by the OBC (95.4 percent), the ST (94.5 percent) and the SC (93.9 percent). The reverse pattern was shown by kerosene.

References:

Report No. 567 (68/1.0/4): Energy Sources of Indian Households for Cooking and Lighting, 2011-12, NSS 68th Round (July 2011-June 2012), please click here to read
 
Draft resolution proposed by 14 countries in the 68th World Health Assembly on 26 May, 2015 (accessed on 31 July 2015), please click here to read
 
Health and the environment: addressing the health impact of air pollution -Report by the Secretariat, 68th World Health Assembly (accessed on 31 July 2015), 10 April, 2015, please click here to read

Household air pollution and health (accessed on 31 July 2015), updated in March 2014, please click here to read

Air Pollution (accessed on 31 July 2015), please click here to read
 
'Air pollution causes 8m deaths/yr' -Sushmi Dey, The Times of India, 19 May, 2015, please click here to read

Cookstoves and the climate -Mridula Ramesh, The Hindu, 14 May, 2015, please click here to read

The politics of particles -Sunita Narain, Business Standard, 9 February, 2014, please click here to read more
 
Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi
 

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