Transition to cooking with clean fuels in rural households of India: Studying the effect of policy and other factors

The seventh UN Sustainable Development Goal is access to clean and affordable energy and cooking with clean fuels is essential to reduce the disease burden associated with indoor air pollution from solid fuel use. The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) was launched in 2016 to target poor households belonging to disadvantaged caste and class categories and provided free LPG connections to these households to make clean energy accessible. This paper used binomial logistic regression modelling with rural household data from two rounds of the NFHS conducted in 2015–16 and 2019-21, to find whether a targeted intervention like the PMUY is enough to increase the use of clean fuels over solid fuels among rural households in India. The change in the effect of socio-economic and demographic factors affecting the choice of clean fuels for cooking are also studied to find their relative contribution along with the effect of policy. This analysis finds that targeted interventions have significant impact in bringing a positive change in use of clean fuels for cooking in rural households in India but there are other social and economic factors which also play an important role in sustaining the transition to clean cooking.