Abstract

The present study examines the impact of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) on LPG adoption, girls’ education, and women’s empowerment in rural India. Despite the government’s efforts to provide free LPG connections to low-income households, the intended objective has not been duly fulfilled, in letter and in spirit. Using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods approach, a field survey and focus group discussions were conducted in three villages across Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, engaging 67 PMUY beneficiary households.

Findings reveal that while LPG use is primarily limited to short-duration cooking, solid fuels continue to dominate household energy needs. LPG refill access remains time-consuming and costly, requiring male assistance, which affect the man-days resulting restricts consistent usage. Nevertheless, LPG adoption has reduced indoor air pollution and eased cooking and fuel collection burdens, especially for women and girls, indirectly enabling improved school attendance. However, broader socio-economic and cultural barriers mitigate a direct effect on girls’ school enrollment and academic outcomes. The study underscores that while PMUY has positively influenced health, empowerment, and convenience at the household level, achieving sustained LPG adoption and educational benefits requires addressing refill affordability, supply logistics, and deep-rooted social norms.

Keywords

  • Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojna
  • LPG connections
  • Clean Energy
  • solid fuels
  • crop residues
  • girls
  • education

References

  1. Arku, R. E., Ezzati, M., Baumgartner, J., Fink, G., Zhou, B., Hystad, P., & Brauer, M. (2018). Elevated blood pressure and household solid fuel use in premenopausal women: Analysis of 12 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) from 10 countries. Environmental Research, 160, 499-505
  2. Alkon, M., Harish, S., Urpelainen, J., (2016). Household energy access and expenditure in developing countries: Evidence from India, 1987–2010. Energy Sustain. Develop. 35, 25–34.
  3. Andadari, R.K., Mulder, P., Rietveld, P., 2014. Energy poverty reduction by fuel switching. Impact evaluation of the LPG conversion program in Indonesia. Energy Policy 66, 436–449.
  4. Angoori, S., & Kumar, S. (2023). Perceived benefits of modern cooking technologies: a study of beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana. Technological Sustainability 2 (3): 274–294.
  5. Ashraf, N., Tol, R., S., J., (2024). The impact of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana on Indian households. Economic Analysis and Policy 84.878-897
  6. Balachandra, P., (2011). Dynamics of rural energy access in India: An assessment. Energy 36 (9), 5556–5567.
  7. Calzada, J., Sanz, A., (2018). Universal access to clean cookstoves: Evaluation of a public program in peru. Energy policy 118, 559–572.
  8. CCEA, (2023). Cabinet approves targeted subsidy to Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana consumers. https://pib.gov.in/indexd.aspx, (Accessed on 25 August 2023). Press Release.
  9. Chaudhary, S., & Singh, R. (2022). Gender dynamics and health impacts of PMUY. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 27(1), 89-105.
  10. Chindarkar, N., Jain, A., Mani, S., (2021). Examining the willingness-to-pay for exclusive use of LPG for cooking among rural households in India. Energy Policy 150, 112107.
  11. Choudhuri, P., & Desai, S. (2021). Lack of access to clean fuel and piped water and children’s educational outcomes in rural India. World Development, 145, 105535.
  12. Dabadge, A., (2018). What has the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana achieved so far? Econ. Political Weekly 53 (20).
  13. Dash, A. K., Sahoo, D., (2024). Effectiveness of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana towards Sustainable Living for Indian Households. Scope.14(4) 4-26
  14. Edwards, J. H., & Langpap, C. (2012). Fuel choice, indoor air pollution and children's health. Environment and Development Economics, 17(4), 379-406.
  15. Gill-Wiehl, A., Brown, T., Smith, K.R., (2020). LPG for free? A difference-in-differences approach to analyze the effect on adoption of India’s PMUY LPG program. Research Square
  16. Gill-Wiehl, A., Brown, T., Smith, K., (2022). The need to prioritize consumption: a difference-in-differences approach to analyze the total effect of India’s below-the-poverty-line policies on LPG use. Energy Policy 164, 112915.
  17. Gould, C.F., Urpelainen, J., (2018). LPG as a clean cooking fuel: Adoption, use, and impact in rural India. Energy Policy 122, 395–408.
  18. Gupta, P., Verma, S., & Kumar, R. (2019). Environmental benefits of PMUY: A study on household carbon emissions. Journal of Environmental Sustainability, 20(4), 301-318.
  19. Jagger, P., & Shively, G. (2014). Land use change, fuel use and respiratory health in Uganda. Energy Policy, 67, 713-726.
  20. James, B. S., Shetty, R. S., Kamath, A., & Shetty, A. (2020). Household cooking fuel use and its health effects among rural women in southern India-A cross-sectional study. PLoS ONE, 15(4), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231757.
  21. Kapsalyamova, R. M., Kerimray, A., & Kamalbek, K. D. A. (2021). Why energy access is not enough for choosing clean cooking fuels? Evidence from the multinomial logit model. Journal of Environmental Management.
  22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3912347
  23. Kaur-Sidhu M, Ravindra K, Mor S, John S, Aggarwal AN. (2019). Respiratory health status of rural women exposed to liquefied petroleum gas and solid biomass fuel emissions. Air, Soil and Water Research.;12:1178622119874314.
  24. Khandelwal, M., Hill, Jr., M.E., Greenough, P., Anthony, J., Quill, M., Linderman, M., Udaykumar, H., (2017). Why have improved cook-stove initiatives in India failed. World Dev. 92, 13–27.
  25. Kumar, A., & Singh, S. (2017). Early evaluation of PMUY’s impact on rural households in India. Journal of Rural Development, 34(2), 145-160.
  26. Mall R, Rani S. (2020) Women’s satisfaction with Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY). International Journal of Home Science 2020; 6(1): 363-368.
  27. Mehta, A., & Joshi, K. (2021). Impact of PMUY on household expenditure patterns. Journal of Economic Studies, 29(2), 160-175.
  28. Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, (2022). Indian Petroleum and Natural Gas Statistics. Annual Report, https://pib.gov.in/indexd.aspx.
  29. Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, (2023a). Features of PMUY. https://pib.gov.in/indexd.aspx. Press Release.
  30. Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, (2023b). Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojna (PMUY). PIBhttps://pib.gov.in/indexd.aspx. Press Release.
  31. Mishra, P., & Behera, B. (2016). Socio-economic and environmental implications of solar electrification: Experience of rural Odisha. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 56, 953-964.
  32. Patel, R., & Sharma, M. (2018). Socio-economic effects of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana on rural women. International Journal of Gender Studies, 15(3), 210-225.
  33. PIB, GOI (2025) PIBhttps://pib.gov.in/indexd.aspx.
  34. Pillarisetti, A., Ghorpade, M., Madhav, S., Dhongade, A., Roy, S., Balakrishnan, K, Smith, K. R. (2019). Promoting LPG usage during pregnancy: A pilot study in rural Maharashtra, India. Environment International, (January), 540–549. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2019.04.017
  35. Ranjan, R., Singh, S., (2020). Household cooking fuel patterns in rural India: Pre- and post-pradhan mantri ujjwala yojana. Indian J. Human Develop. 14 (3), 518–526.
  36. Rao, V., & Kumar, N. (2020). Implementation challenges of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana. Journal of Public Policy and Governance, 25(1), 78-95.
  37. Sahu, V., Tripathi, S.N., Sutaria, R., Dumka, N., Kotwal, A., Ghosh, K., Singh, R.K., (2024). Assessment of a clean cooking fuel distribution scheme in rural households of India–‘‘Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala yojana (PMUY)’’. Energy Sustain. Develop. 81, 101492.
  38. Sharma, A., Parikh, J., & Singh, C. (2019). Transition to LPG for cooking: A case study from two states of India. Energy for Sustainable Development, 51, 63–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esd.2019.06.001
  39. Practical Action (2015) Women Spend 374 Hours Each Year Collecting Firewood in India. Clean Cooking Alliance. https://cleancooking.org/news/05-05-2015-women-spend-374-hours-each-year-collecting-firewood-in-india-study-finds/
  40. Su, Q., Azam, M., 2023. Does access to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) reduce the household burden of women? Evidence from India. Energy Econ. 119, 106529.
  41. Swain, S.S., Mishra, P., 2020. Determinants of adoption of cleaner cooking energy: Experience of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana in rural Odisha, India. J.Clean. Prod. 248, 119223.
  42. UNDP, (2015). The SDGs in Action. Technical report.
  43. Verma, P., & Desai, S. (2021). Long-term sustainability of PMUY benefits. Journal of Social Policy, 32(3), 210-225Vyas, S., Gupta, A., Khalid, N., 2021. Gender and LPG use after government intervention in rural north India. World Develop. 148, 105682.
  44. Yadav. (2020) Are We Really Out of Chulha Trap: A Case Study from a District of Maharashtra. International Journal of Health Sciences and Research (IJHSR) - Academia.Edu,