Efficient use of a scarce resource
HALF THE total energy consumed in India is spent on cooking food, nearly twice the energy consumed by agriculture and industry put together. Energy planners, however, inexplicably and routinely overlook this vast consumption category, and planning priorities are invariably skewed against it.
The report of a working group on energy policy, set up by the Planning Commission, indicates that non-commercial sources like firewood, agricultural waste and cow dung provide as much as 87 per cent of the country's cooking energy requirements. In urban areas, 73 per cent of the households depend on these sources; in villages, this figure shoots up to as much as 99 per cent.
The government and other agencies conduct programmes to conserve and optimise the use of fuelwood. One is the National Programme on Improved Chulhas (NPIC), designed and launched by the ministry of non-conventional energy sources. The Programme promotes the use of energy-efficient stoves that use biomass for fuel. It is implemented through state government agencies, autonomous bodies and voluntary organisations. Trained workers make, install and maintain stoves. They also feedback and follow up on their functioning for a year after installation.
The Kerala Sastra Sahithya Parishat (KSSP), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), disseminates and promotes smokless chulhas, which reduce smoke in the kitchen and improve the envitonment inhose,KSSP began by concentrating on tribal areas. But because biomass fule was available easily, the tribals weren,t keen on getting fule-saving stoves installed. The KSSP then decided to target the middle-and lower middle-class. The KSSP programme has spreed to more than 14 districts of Kerala. By the end of 1987, nearly 25,000 stoves had been made avabilable, KSSP believes that with more funds and better infrastructure, 200,000 stove can be installed every year.
Since 1984, the Delhi-based All India Women's Conference (AIWC) --an NGO--has worked to help implement NPIC. AIWC staffrain rural women in their construction, use and maintenance of chulhas. By 1991-92, the AIWC had installed about 20,000 chulhas in the country.
Safai Vidyalaya, which is based in Gujarat, smokeless chulha as long ago as 1961. It began distributing an improved stove in the early 1970s. This was the only active chulha programme in the country in that devade. By 1983, nearly 35,000 smokeless chulhas had been installed in Gujarat.
The rural wing of the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) in Ahmedabad, which has been organising poor workers in Gujarat since 1976, in association with the NPIC made 5,103 chulhas by the end of 1984, against a target of 3,500. Women workers were trained to promote the improved chulha and they in turn organised block and village level workshops. SEWA also organised workshops to gather feedback.
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