As LPG Prices Soar, Women Return To Toxic Traditional Stoves
By Vandana K
“The gas ran out on Chhath Puja day,” recalls Phoolwati. It was a late October morning last year and the daily wage worker from Savda JJ colony near the Delhi-Haryana border had only finished half her cooking for the autumnal festival. Phoolwati’s daughter gave her Rs 300 so she could buy a refill from the black market to finish cooking.
That was the last time Phoolwati, a single mother in a family of seven, refilled the LPG cylinder she got a few years ago under the government’s flagship welfare scheme, the Prime Minister Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY). Popularly known as Ujjwala, the scheme aims to promote clean cooking in India by enabling poor women to get gas connections.
Photo courtesy of Karan Singh Rathore.
Source: BehanBox (link opens in a new window)
- Categories
- Energy, Health Care
- Tags
- clean cooking
