Does Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana effectively address its intention of curbing the problem of household air pollution? Analyse (200 Words)
Refer - The Indian Express
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 6 years
KEY POINTS
· Household air pollution is the invisible factor increasing ambient air pollution.
· Burning of solid fuels such as firewood and dung-cakes, mainly for cooking, results in emissions of fine particulate matter and form by far the single largest source of air pollution in the country.
PMUY, addressing the indoor air pollution
· To address these problems PMUY was launched to provide the clean cooking fuels.
· PMUY has been recognised by World Health Organisation as one of the decisive intervention by the Government to address the Indoor Air Pollution which accounts for nearly 10 lakh deaths in a year in the country.
· PMUY aims at providing clean-cooking fuel to the poor households, which are otherwise vulnerable to various health hazards associated with indoor air pollution and bringing in qualitative charges in the living standards.
· Further, shared advantages of using LPG in terms of health benefits, time saved and ensuring safety of women.
· As per the data Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas 5 crore LPGs were distributed to the entitled beneficiaries, resulting in more use of cleaner cooking fuels thereby reducing the effects of household air pollution.
Flaws in PMUY
· Oil Marketing Companies(OMC) have reported very minuscule number of cases of established irregularities in providing gas connections to BPL households under PMUY since launch of the Scheme.
· The difficulties faced by OMCs mainly relate to identification of households, difficult terrain, low awareness on usefulness of LPG etc, resulting improper utilization of resources.
· Refilling rates are higher and is difficult for rural poor to meet those costs.
· Rural people are comfortable with bio-mass burning as it is easy to access and is available when needed. This behaviour acts as a big obstacle for the scheme.
Government needs to create more awareness about the effects of Indoor air pollution and focus on changing people’s behaviour and addressing the flaws in governance framework.
