Primary Aim:

• The primary aim of PMUY is to safeguard the health of women and children by providing them LPG connection, which is considered to be a clean cooking fuel.


• In this way, women are protected from the smokey kitchen environment, and they do not have to wander around the hazardous areas for collecting firewood. Thus, in a way it empowers women.

Secondary Aim:

• PMUY is likely to produce around 1 lakh additional employment opportunities in the next three years. The same period will also provide a business opportunity of worth INR 10000 crores in India.


• The PMUY scheme is expected to give a boost to the 'Make in India' campaign as all the manufacturers of gas stoves, cylinders, gas hose, and regulators are domestic.

• In India, almost ten crore households are deprived of LPG as cooking fuel.


• These households rely on coal, cow dung cakes, firewoods, as their primary source of cooking fuel. These fuels emit alarming household pollution leading to adverse health effects on women and child health.


• One of the World Health Organization (WHO) Report claimed that the smoke inhaled by a woman from these unclean sources of fuel amounts to burning of 400 cigarettes in an hour.


• Moreover, women and children have indulged into the drudgery of collecting these sources of fuel such as firewood daily.

The process of applying for an LPG connection is given diagrammatically.

Given below are the details of the application process for LPG connection.

• Women belonging to a BPL household can apply for a new LPG connection in a prescribed format through the nearest LPG distributor.


• The women will have to submit details such as the complete address, Aadhar card number, and Jandhan Bank Account of all the family members at the time of submitting the application form.


• Once the application process is complete, the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) will issue the connection to the eligible beneficiaries.


• There is also an option for the consumer to opt for Easy Monthly Installments (EMI). On each refill, the amount of EMI is adjusted with the subsidy amount due to the consumer.

The Research Institute for Compassionate Economics (RICE) survey a random sample of 1550 households in 11 districts of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan. Collectively, these households were two-fifths of the country's rural population.
According to the study, the following observations were made on the implementation of PMUY:
Use of chulhas: The study revealed that most rural households who have taken LPG connections still use chulhas with dung cakes or firewood.

• Overall, only 27 percent of the households were exclusively using the gas stoves.


• Another 37 percent of the households were using both the chulhas and the gas stove.


• On the other hand, 36 percent of the households used chulhas exclusively.

Use of Solid fuel: Around 85 percent of the PMUY beneficiaries in rural India (in the four states surveyed) were using the solid fuels even after the implementation of the scheme because of financial reasons and reasons of gender inequalities.
Increase in LPG ownership: In all the four states, there was a substantial increase in LPG ownership.

• Due to the implementation of PMUY, 76 percent of household owned the LPG connection.


• Among those who have received an LPG connection, 53 percent of these households used chulha, and 32 percent of households used both media of cooking.


• Refilling the cylinder: Since the beneficiaries of PMUY are poor, for them the refilling of cylinder forms a greater fraction of their monthly consumption. Therefore, they are less likely to get refill immediately when a cylinder is empty.

Cost of refill: Since almost 70 percent of rural households do not have to spend upon the solid fuels, the relative cost of refilling an LPG cylinder is far higher. The cost is higher even if the same is subsidized.
Gender inequalities: In rural India, women are not economic decision-makers in the household, which was a major hindrance in the shift to LPG usage.

• Seventy percent of respondents (who were mainly females) thought that the gas stove was better for the health of the cook.


• More than 86 percent of the respondents believed that cooking food on chulha was good for the health of the family.

Both these facts symbolized the ignorance of the households towards the ambient air pollution. This pollution is harmful to those who are cooking and not cooking the food.
Besides many issues emerging in the policy implementation, the WHO has acknowledged PMUY as a decisive intervention of the Indian Government to address the issue of indoor air pollution. Therefore, there is hope to achieve much more soon.