Alleviating Energy Poverty: Indian Experience
Author: Garima Jain
Contact details:
Ms Garima Jain
Regulatory Studies and Governance Division
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)
Darbari Seth Block,India Habitat Centre,
Lodhi Road, New Delhi – 110003 email: [email protected]
Alternative email id: [email protected]
Phone: 91-11- 24682100, 41504900
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Abstract Energy services play an important role in human welfare. India faces acute energy poverty indicating lack of access of clean energy fuels. Access to electricity is limited to 56% households in India and about 89% of rural households depend on polluting energy sources. Energy poverty impacts income poverty as poor find it difficult to acquire high priced cleaner fuels. It also adversely impacts the socio economic conditions of women. The paper highlights the linkage of energy poverty with income poverty and gender inequality. It analyses measures taken to alleviate energy poverty and recommends regulatory and policy measures as way forward.
Key Words: Energy poverty, income poverty, gender disparity Full Paper 1. Introduction The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the international community’s commitment to halving poverty in world’s poorest countries by 2015. The MDGs primarily aim to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS,Malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and develop a global partnership for development. World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg in 2002 recognized the access of energy services as a prerequisite to achievement of all MDGs. Energy carriers such as electricity and other fuels facilitates job creation, industrial activities, agricultural outputs and micro-enterprises and thus helps alleviating poverty and hunger. Access to modern fuels eases women’s domestic burden and thereby promotes better education and women empowerment through their participation in economic activities. Provision of energy services also improves health care facilities and its delivery. Cleaner energy systems contribute to environmental sustainability by addressing adverse impact of energy production, distribution and consumption. WSSD also lays emphasis on importance of partnerships between public entities, development agencies, civil society and the private sector to ensure effective delivery of affordable, reliable and environmentally sustainable energy services (UN Energy 2005). This highlights the important role of energy services in almost all aspects of human welfare. Yet, there are millions of ‘energy poor’ in the world who lack access to clean and modern energy sources for very basic activities of life. Worldwide about 2.4 billion people still lack access to safe and reliable energy and about 1.6 billion people do not have access to electricity. The problem of energy poverty is found to be acute in developing countries such as India where about 89% of rural and about 28% of urban households depend on polluting sources of energy such as firewood, chips and dung cake for meeting their cooking needs. Also, access to electricity is just limited to about 56% of total households. With the above background this paper discusses the problem of energy poverty in India in great details. The paper highlights the linkage of energy poverty with income poverty and gender inequality. It also analyses the measures taken to alleviate energy poverty within country and recommends the regulatory and policy measures as a way forward for addressing the problem.
2. Energy Poverty in India The energy poverty in a country is assessed thorough lack of access of clean and efficient sources of energy. Access to clean fuels essentially means provision of energy sources like electricity, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). It is essential that these clean energy resources are maximally used to meet the cooking and lighting needs of the households. However, in Indian scenario, the energy consumption pattern reflects the opposite situation as it is found to be skewed towards traditional and polluting fuels such as firewood, chips and dung cake for meeting their energy requirement. In India, National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) collects data on household’s consumption expenditure every year. About 28 kg of firewood and chips (13.03 kilograms of oil equivalent [kgoe]) are used in Indian households for cooking purpose on per capita basis vis-à-vis consumption of about 1.82 kg of LPG (2.01 kgoe) (NSSO 2007). Access to clean energy fuels is found to be limited among Indian households especially among the rural households. For instance just a smaller portion of households, i.e about 10% of households in rural areas and about 67% households in urban areas, have access to cleaner cooking fuels as indicated in figure 1. Figure 1 indicates the primary sources of energy used for cooking in both rural and urban households.
Figure 1: Energy fuels for cooking activity
% o f H o u s e h o ld s R u r a l U r b a n 7 5 8 0 5 9 6 0 4 0 2 2 9 9 2 0 2 1 8 5 4 1 5 0 t e g s e G n & r k
n e n P e i e a d c e s k L r h c m o s t
p o i u e o o g o s h o O r g n w C e n S C
u e a K r o i r D r F N a E n e r g y F u e ls
Source: NSSO 2008
The figure 1 highlights the severe level of energy poverty among the rural households where more than 85% of households are still dependent on the polluting sources of energy for meeting their cooking needs (NSSO 2008). Similarly, for the case of lighting, there is substantial rural–urban disparity on the consumption of clean fuel i.e electricity as indicated in figure 2. Although 72% of the total households in India are located in rural areas, only 56% of these rural households use electricity as their primary source for lighting. On the other hand, in urban areas, 90% or more households use electricity which is a regarded as a good level of penetration for clean fuel for lighting for urban households (NSSO 2008).
Figure 2: Access to energy fuels for lighting among Indian households
0 . 9 1 . 6 1 0 0 % 6 . 4 8 0 % 4 2 . 3
s d l 6 0 % o h
e 9 2 . 7
s 4 0 % u
o 5 6 . 1 H
2 0 % f o
% 0 % U r b a n H o u s e h o ld s R u r a l H o u s e h o ld s
E le c t r ic it y K e r o s e n e N o A r r a n g e m e n t
Source : NSSO 2008
Although at present, rural household’s faces severe energy poverty concern, it is important to note that the level of access to clean fuels has shown an improvement in last few years. Figure 3 indicate the movement of rural and urban households on the energy ladder. The energy ladder has the traditional sources of energy on its lowest rung and kerosene in next rung, while LPG is present in the highest rung. It is clear from figure 3 that the usage of LPG, has increased among households since 1999. Share of LPG in rural household energy basket for cooking activity has increased from about 5.4% in 1999/2000 to about 8.9% in 2006/07. Similarly, for urban households, the share of LPG has increased from about 44% in 1999/2000 to about 59% in 2006/07.
Figure 3: Distribution of households by primary sources of energy used for cooking
1 0 0 % 8 0 %
s 6 0 % d l o
h 4 0 % e s
u 2 0 % o H
f 0 % o
% R u r a l U r b a n R u r a l U r b a n R u r a l U r b a n R u r a l U r b a n R u r a l U r b a n R u r a l U r b a n
9 9 - 0 0 0 1 - 0 2 0 3 0 4 - 0 5 0 5 - 0 6 0 6 - 0 7 Y e a r s
F ir e w o o d a n d C h ip s L P G D u n g C a k e K e r o s e n e O t h e r s
Source : NSSO 2008
As regard the lighting activity, households have shown an upward movement on the energy ladder as well by graduating from kerosene to electricity as indicated in figure 4. The share of electricity in rural household energy basket for lighting activity has increased from about 48.4% in 1999/2000 to about 56.1% in 2006/07. Similarly, for urban households, the share of electricity has increased from about 88.9% to 92.7% over the same time period (NSSO 2008). It is important to note that the percentage increase in the share of electricity in case of rural households (about 16%) is about four times greater than that of the urban households (about 4%).
Figure 4 : Distribution of households by primary sources of energy used for lighting
1 0 0 % 8 0 % 6 0 % s d l 4 0 % o h
e 2 0 % s
u 0 % o l l l l l l n n n n n n a a a a a a H
r r a r a r a r a r a a f u u b u b u b u b u b b o r r r r r r
R R R R R R U U U U U U % 9 9 - 0 0 0 1 - 0 2 0 2 - 0 3 0 4 - 0 5 0 5 - 0 6 0 6 - 0 7
K e r o s e n e E le c t r ic it y O t h e r s
Source : NSSO 2008
Thus, the foregoing discussion reveals that though there have been some improvements in access to cleaner fuels for cooking and lighting activities, a large number of households especially in rural area, still do not have access to these cleaner fuels. This indicates the serious level of energy poverty in the country which needs to be addressed at the earliest.
3. Linking energy poverty and income poverty in India
Poverty Line is an economic benchmark used by the Government of India to indicate economic disadvantage and to identify individuals and households in need of government assistance and aid. Planning commission calculates the income based poverty line every year after adjusting inflation. For year 2005/06, income of Rs 368 for rural households and Rs 560 for urban households is identified as the poverty line. This income is bare minimum to support the food requirements and does not provide much for the other basic essential items like health, education etc (Planning Commission 2007). According to the criterion used by the Planning Commission of India 27.5% of the population was living below the poverty line in 2004/05 and as per World Bank estimate for 2005, 42% of India's falls below the international poverty line of $1.25 a day (World Bank 2008). This indicates the large extent of income poverty in the country.
Energy poverty is regarded as one of the aspect of the income poverty. Provision of energy services in form of electricity, motive power etc facilitate industrial and agricultural growth in the country. Such growth and development enhances the livelihood opportunities in terms of greater level of employment and entrepreneurial opportunities. This shall further translate into higher income of the households and subsequent reduction in poverty levels. In view of economic development, it becomes important for the households to have access to clean energy fuels on a regular basis.
However, it is observed that the problem of energy poverty is acute among the poor households as people with less income have limited access to clean fuels. For instance, among rural areas, households below poverty line consumes about just 0.59 liters of kerosene on per capita as compared to consumption of 1 litres of kerosene among the rural households above poverty line. Similar situation prevails in urban areas, where urban poor on an average consumes 0.3 kg of LPG as compared to average consumption of 2.15 kg of LPG per capita by urban population above poverty line (NSSO 2001). A probable reason for such consumption pattern is the high market value attached to the cleaner fuels such as LPG which make these fuels unaffordable by poor. As a result poor people tend to stick to consumption of traditional fuels such as biomass which is usually freely available or is low priced.
Further, it is surprising to find that the poor households, both urban and rural, despite having limited access to cleaner fuels, spends a larger share of their total expenditure on acquiring energy fuels as compared to households above the poverty line. NSSO regards the monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) as the main indicator of standard of living. As shown in Figure 5, rural households within the lowest MPCE class of Rs 0–225 (USD 0 – 4.79) allocate about 11.5% of their total expenditure for procuring energy fuels for cooking and lighting vis-à-vis 7.2% allocated by rural households within highest MPCE class of Rs 950 (USD 20.21) and more. Similar trend is witnessed for urban households as well, as depicted in Figure 6. The figure shows that the households within lowest MPCE class of Rs 0–300 (USD 0-6.38) allocate about 12.8% of their total expenditure for energy fuels, which is double the percentage amount spend by the urban households within highest MPCE class of Rs 1925 (USD 40.96) and more (NSSO 2005). This indicates the higher financial burden faced by the poorer households in meeting their energy needs. Higher financial burden hampers the movement of the poorer households up on the energy ladder, as the cleaner fuels are priced higher than the traditional ones.
Figure 5: Percentage spending on lighting and cooking (Rural)
1 4 11.5 10 .9 1 2 10 .3 9 .9 9 .5 1 0 11.4 8 .6 % S h a r e o f 10 .5 10 .2 9 .7 s p e n d in g o n 8 9 .0 f u e l p e r 6 7 .2 h o u s e h o ld 4 2 0 e 5 0 5 5 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 r 5 7 1 2 7 2 8 4 0 5 2 o 9 7 6 5 4 4 3 3 3 2 2 ------m 5 5 5 - 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 7 1 2 0 7 2 8 4 0 5 2 7 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 3 2 2 9 M P C E C la s s e s
Source: NSSO 2005 Figure 6: Percentage spending on lighting and cooking (Urban)
1 4 12 .8 11.9 11.3 1 2 10 .4 11.9 9 . 6 % s p e n d in g 1 0 11.0 10 . 7 7 . 8 8 10 .0 o n f u e l p e r 8 .7 6 h o u s e h o ld 4 6 . 3 2 0 e 0 0 5 0 5 5 5 0 5 0 5 r 0 5 2 0 7 6 7 2 1 0 2 o 3 3 4 5 5 6 7 1 9 5 9 ------1 1 m 1
0 - - 0 0 5 0 5 5 - 5 - 0 5 2 0 7 6 5 7 0 0 5 3 3 4 5 5 6 1 7 2 0 2 9 1 5 9 1 1 1 M P C E C la s s e s
Source NSSO 2005
This highlights the two way linkage between energy poverty and income poverty. Income poverty acts a deterrent to households in acquiring cleaner fuels which are priced higher than the traditional fuels and energy poverty acts as a hindrance to improvements in income level and thus creating a vicious circle.
4. Linking energy poverty with gender issues in India
Energy poverty has strong gender dimension attached to it. Women are primarily responsible for procurement of energy fuels and their management as well. Such tasks done by women are often not recognised well in the society as these activities are unpaid and also do not contribute to the national income accounts (UNDP 2007). Women need energy inputs for their household chores such as cooking, space heating, post-harvest processing and for small enterprises.
Burning of traditional energy fuels such as wood, dung, crop residue causes indoor air pollution which causes considerable damage to human health, particularly that of women and children as they work in close proximity to these fuels in poorly ventilated kitchens. Exposure of household members to toxic emissions from cooking and heating activities is the third highest health risk to human. Studies undertaken indicate that exposure to biomass smoke or indoor air pollution is associated with chronic bronchitis, tuberculosis, cataract, and acute respiratory infections (ARI). In fact, ARI is the largest single disease category among children in India, and it accounts for about 400,000 deaths on a national scale annually, of which 90% occurs in children below the age of five. It is estimated that 11 million years of healthy life of women and children are lost every year due to the health effects of cooking stoves based on solid fuel that releases many pollutants (ESMAP, 2004).
A study undertaken by Energy Sector Management Assistant Program (ESMAP) indicates the gender differences in exposure to toxic emissions in households in India. The study highlights that exposure level to toxic emission to female cooks in the family (450 g/m3) is twice than the male members (230 g/m3). Also, even the female non cooks are disproportionately more exposed to toxic fuels than the males as they are more likely to remain indoors and help in households chores. Analysing gender difference within different age groups, it is observed that the females in 61-80 age group experience the highest exposure level followed by women in 16-60 age group. On the other hand males in age group of 16-60 experience the least exposure as they are likely to remain outside homes for work. Children in age group of 2-5 years is the only age group where both males and females are equally exposed to indoor air pollution as they remain indoor and stay close to their mothers (ESMAP, 2004). The above discussions highlight the gender inequity in terms of negative impacts faced by women due to energy poverty conditions.
Energy poverty also adversely impacts the economic conditions of households, which is particularly relevant for women and children, who spend several hours a day collecting energy fuel. It is found that women spend around 50 hours every month for collecting fuelwood. This has serious economic implications as precious time of household members is wasted in collecting low quality fuels, which reduces their efficiency and ability to engage in economic activity required for improving their livelihoods (Reddy 2004).
Further, it is observed that as women and young female children spends large portion of their day in arranging for energy fuels such as fuel wood, cow dung, wood etc, they are negatively effected by being away from school and thus receives less or no education (Reddy 2004). Such phenomenon is particularly more in rural areas as more than 85% of rural households depend on traditional energy sources. It is thus, observed that gender disparity in children attending school is larger in rural areas as compared to urban areas. Figure 7 indicates the Males to Female ratio in attending school in 2005/06 in rural and urban India. It reflects the ratio of percentage of males attending school vis a vis percentage of female attending the school. Figure 7 highlights that in urban areas, about equal proportions of boys and girls attend school at each age indicating the male to female ratio of school attendance as more or less equal to 1. However, among the rural areas it is observed that there is gender disparity in lower age group (6-10 yrs) wherein 84% males vis a vis 79% females attended school (indicating male to female ratio of 1.06) and this disparity widen with age. In the age group of 15-17 years, just 28% females attended school vis a vis 47% males (indicating male to female ratio as 1.68) (NFHS 2006).
Figure 7: Males- Female ratio in attending school in 2005/06 in India
1 .8 0 1 .6 0 1 .4 0
n 1 .2 0 o i t a
c 1 .0 0 u d e
0 .8 0 n i
o i
t 0 .6 0 a R
r 0 .4 0 e d
n 0 .2 0 e
G 0 .0 0 6 - 1 0 1 1 - 1 4 1 5 - 1 7 A g e Y e a r s
R u r a l U r b a n
Source: NFHS 2006
The above discussion highlights the importance of provision of energy in lives of women. Access to clean energy fuels has far reaching impact on the health, education and economic conditions of the households. It impacts the overall social development of the households. Thus, to achieve the aim of gender mainstreaming, it is important to address the problem of energy poverty at the earliest especially at the rural level.
5. Measures to address energy poverty in India The government through its various ministries is making sincere efforts to address the problem of energy poverty. Measures taken to address energy poverty should take into account the linkage of energy poverty with income poverty and gender disparity. In view to address the overall energy poverty problem, measures taken could be clubbed into following three categories:
5.1 Measures taken to increase the availability of clean energy sources
As described earlier in the paper, it is observed that rural households in particular faces severe energy poverty concerns as large number of households still continues to depend on traditional sources of energy which are polluting in nature. This highlights the urgent need to provide access to cleaner energy fuels especially at rural households.
As electricity is regarded as a cleaner energy option for lighting purpose, the government lays special emphasis on the improvement in access to electricity for all households through its policy initiatives. The National Electricity Policy aims to universally provide access to electricity by 2010 and to meet the demand in full by 2012. It also aims at providing a minimum lifeline consumption of 1 unit/household/day by 2012 as a merit good. For achieving this aim, rural distribution and village electrification infrastructure is being developed through a programme called Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana which was launched in April 2005. Although overall, the programme looks impressive, it suffers from various drawbacks such as lack of coordination between the centre and states on the projects that are undertaken under this programme, uncertainty of commercial viability of projects undertaken, and selection and supervision of franchise (Bhattacharyya 2005). Also, Rural Electrification Policy, 2006 and Remote Village Electrification Program aims to provide electricity to rural and remote areas respectively through off–grid or stand-alone systems, wherever grid connectivity is not feasible.
Also, there are efforts by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE; erstwhile Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources) to provide alternative sources of energy to households. Using solar as an alternative source of energy, MNRE promotes solar lanterns and solar cookers by providing financial support in form of subsidies to manufacturers and users of these products. Also MNRE supports these products through various promotional activities such as demonstrating cooking, providing training, conducting workshops, and so on. As a result of these efforts, a total of 6.57 lakhs (0.65 million) solar cookers and 41000 solar lanterns have been sold till the end of 2008/09 (MNRE 2009).
MNRE promotes other alternative and renewable energy sources as well such as biogas. The National Project on Biogas Development (NPBD) was launched by the MNRE during 1981/82 for promoting family-type biogas plants to provide clean and convenient fuel for cooking and lighting in rural areas, along with enriched organic manure for use in conjunction with chemical fertilizers in agricultural fields, to improve sanitation and hygiene by linking toilets with biogas plants, and to reduce the drudgery of women. The project is implemented through multiple agencies. Up to 2008/09, over 4.12 million biogas plants have been supported under the NPBD, realizing 34% of the total potential of 12 million. It was estimated that adding 1.02 lakh (0.10 million) family-type biogas plants would result in an estimated savings of about 1.2 lakh (0.12 million) tonnes of fuelwood and production of about 12 lakh (1.2 million) tonnes of organic manure (MNRE 2009).
The above quoted measures by MNRE and other government agencies are just indicative in nature; there are many other measures which have been undertaken to address the energy poverty problem. What is important to note in the above discussion is the fact that there are efforts being made to develop required infrastructure to provide electricity at rural areas for meeting their lighting and other needs. Also, other alternative sources are being promoted as a substitute for biomass used fro cooking. These substitutes are feasible and affordable to sue even at rural areas.
5.2 Measures taken to address energy poverty and income poverty
As there is a vicious circle between energy poverty and income poverty, it is important that the measures taken to address energy poverty should take into consideration the income level of the households as well. In view of this, all measures undertaken by MNRE as described above provides financial support to either manufacturers or users with the intention to make energy sources affordable to all segment of households and thereby increasing the penetration of the same.
Also, electricity tariffs in various states in India such as Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh etc have lifeline slabs for poorest of poor consumers. These states have formed a separate consumer category for below the poverty line (BPL) consumers who are charged for electricity at a very nominal rate. For instance in Gujarat, BPL consumers having monthly consumption upto 30 units is charged with fixed charge of Rs 5/ month and energy charges of just Rs 1.50/unit for the first 30 units. Similarly in Himachal Pradesh, BPL consumers are charged for electricity at a minimal price of Rs 1.85 per unit. Setting of lower electricity tariff for poor consumer address the concern related to affordability of energy source by the income poor people.
Also, it is observed that domestic consumers are often cross subsidized by other high paying consumer categories such as industrial and commercial. For instance, in case of a northern distribution utility of Gujarat, tariff charged from commercial and industrial consumers in 2008/09 was about 50% more than the average cost of supplying electricity to them. These categories in turn subsidies the domestic category in northern Gujarat which pays 12% less than the average cost of supply (UGVCL 2009). Similarly, in case of Himachal Pradesh in India, tariff charged from commercial and industrial consumers was 5% and 19% respectively more than the average cost of supplying power to them. Domestic consumers in Himachal Pradesh are merely charged with just 57% of their average cost of supply and thus they are subsidized well be other categories (HPSEB 2009). This highlights the efforts undertaken to provide the electricity to households at an affordable rate taking into account their income levels. It is imperative that electricity be provided to household at affordable rate to encourage households especially in rural areas to switch from traditional sources of energy to electricity.
Another measure which is worth quoting with regard to addressing energy poverty keeping in view the income level is the provision of kerosene through Public Distribution system (PDS) and subsidy scheme on LPG cylinder. Kerosene is sold at discounted price through PDS, and LPG cylinders are sold through dealers of oil companies. During 2008/09, a subsidy of Rs 24.02 (USD 0.51) per litre was provided on kerosene and a subsidy of Rs 257.46 (USD 5.38) per cylinder was provided for LPG. This subsidy burden is shared between the oil companies and the government. As a result of the provision of such high quantum of subsidy, the under- recoveries by oil companies amounted to Rs 1032.92 billion (USD 2197.70 billion) during 2008/09 (PPAC 2009). Considering that still about 85% of rural households are dependent on biomass for cooking needs, it is important to provide kerosene at cheaper price to them to incentivize these households to move up the energy ladder. Similarly, as consumption of LPG is restricted to rich urban households, it is important that LPG should be available at affordable price to all. However, despite spending large amount of money, the objective of the subsidy programme was not achieved. In case of kerosene, although the subsidy was provided with the aim to promote the usage of kerosene as a cooking fuel, a major proportion of the subsidized kerosene was used for lighting. As kerosene is an inefficient source for lighting, the diversion of kerosene for lighting resulted in the misapplication of subsidies. Another concern associated with kerosene subsides is that due to the wide disparity between diesel and kerosene prices, large quantity of kerosene is siphoned off either to the black market or for adulterating diesel. It is estimated that the percentage siphoned is around 40% of the total kerosene supplied (TERI 2005). Consequently, some of the households procure kerosene from the black market at a price more than double the subsidized price, which defeats the overall objective of the programme of providing kerosene at lower price to majority of households.
The above measures describe the effort made to provide energy access to the poor households and thereby addressing the energy poverty which subsequently will positively impact the income level of the households. For instance, one of the TERI study indicates that provision of electricity to the remote villages of Sundarbans region of West Bengal in India made a significant impact on economic development of the region. With supply of grid quality electricity, commercial activities increased in the region. Several new medicine and electronics shops, ice cream shops, small fabrication units, electrified hospitals and computer education centres were also opened up. Other activities such as weaving and sewing picked up in the village. Also, agricultural activities improved in the village as agricultural and allied activities such as arrangement of leaf for supply, watering in the field and packing of leaves for shipping could be done at night with provision of electricity. Such activities improve the income level of households and thereby indirectly address the income poverty of the households. (TERI2005 b).
Quoting another example of how access to energy sources alleviate income poverty, it is observed that efforts to provide other sources of energy such as biogas also results in employment generation.It is estimated that with the construction of 1.02 lakh (0.10 million) biogas plants during the year, about 3.65 million person-days of employment for skilled and unskilled workers in rural areas would be generated (MNRE 2009). Such instances reflect the positive impact of increased energy access on income level.
The description of above measures reflects how clean energy fuels are made affordable to income poor thereby alleviating energy poverty problem. Also above mentioned measures describes how access to energy sources positively impacts the income level of the households and thereby alleviating income poverty.
5.3 Measures taken to address energy poverty and gender disparity
As described earlier, energy poverty further leads to gender disparity. Women and young children are more vulnerable to the negative impact of energy poverty. As women are often held responsible for arrangement and usage of energy fuels, it is important that special attention be given to women while addressing energy poverty.
Having realised the importance of women role in energy access, there are certain policy directives which offers incentives to women in utilisation and promotion of cleaner energy sources. For instances, MNRE program on promotion of solar lanterns, encourages girl child to use solar lantern for studying by providing a free lantern to a school going girl child belonging to below the poverty line category and living in an unelectrified village/hamlet. About 15,250 solar lanterns were distributed to this category during 2007/08 (MNRE 2008). Also, Integrated Energy Policy (IEP), Planning Commission of India, highlights the importance of provision of clean energy sources to the households and the large efforts made by women in gathering energy fuels. In view of this, IEP recommends that the fuel wood plantation should be done within one kilometre of rural habitation. This is intended to ease the burden incurred by women in collection and transportation of gathered fuel wood.
Also, there are government related institutions which promotes alternative sources of energy along with addressing gender concerns relating to the same. One such institution is the Energy Management Centre (EMC) at Trivandrum in Kerala set up by Government of Kerala. EMC aims to achieve sustainable development through enhancing total energy efficiency and application of renewable energy and environment friendly energy systems in all sectors of the economy. As part of its activities, EMC imparts awareness for energy conservation and undertakes training for skill and capabilities up gradation of energy professionals. EMC conducts ‘Energy Clinics’ which are unique and powerful awareness programme on energy conservation activities as well as promotion of alternative sources of energy in domestic sector. This program is primarily demonstrated and implemented through women volunteers who are regarded as the change agents for energy consumption pattern. Theses volunteers are provided with an ‘Energy Kit’ containing different energy saving equipments and gadgets and they in turn organise energy clinics in their locality, ensuring rural women participation. Energy Clinics are found to be very effective in Kerala in addressing gender issues and energy poverty. Nearly 150 volunteers were trained in the 14 districts of Kerala state. These volunteers conducted more than 800 clinics throughout the state ensuring more than 4000 rural women participation.
It is observed that Non Governmental Organisation (NGOs) has a special role to play in addressing gender issues through energy access. NGO may undertake activities which facilitates promotion as well as wider acceptance of alternative sources of energy. They may undertake demonstration and training activities wherein the households could be trained to use newer energy equipments such as solar cookers, biogas plants etc. For instance, NGO called ‘Barefoot College’ which was established in 1972 works to provide basic services and solutions to problems in rural communities, with the objective of making them self-sufficient and sustainable. Provision of energy especially solar energy is one of the main areas of work of this NGO. It believes in social development through community participation and thus creates a network of rural men and women who are known as ‘Barefoot Professionals’. The NGO realises the tensile strength and dexterity among rural women and train them to be solar engineers and solar cooker engineers. Employment of women after this training makes them partially or fully financially independent. Quoting an example, the NGO trained four women from four different villages of Rajasthan and provided them with residential training programme for solar engineers. These women once got trained, help the villages by assembling the lights and lanterns installed in their respective villages and oversaw their installation. Also, they undertake regular checks in the village, respond to complaints, repair faulty lights and maintain the batteries that power them. These women solar engineers have not only earned respect among the households but also earn a monthly salary which help them financially (Barefoot 2009). The measures described in this section, reflect the important role played by women in various measures taken by different institutions with the aim of moving the households upwards on the energy ladder.
6. Regulatory and policy interventions required to address the challenges
Following are the suggested regulatory and policy interventions required to improve the effectiveness of the measures taken so far for addressing the energy poverty concerns keeping in view its relation to income poverty and gender issues.
Existence of robust institutional mechanism: It is now well established that energy poverty is closely linked to income poverty and gender issues. Dependence on traditional and polluting fuels adds on the expenditure burden on the households and also adversely impacts the health of people especially women and children. This highlights the linkages between different sectors such as the energy sector, health sector, and the finance sector, which deals with subsidies. To accelerate positive change among the households towards cleaner energy fuels, there is a need for institutions in different sectors to come together and offer services as bundled packages for alleviating energy poverty. For instance, ministries dealing in the renewable energy sector and the health sector may work together to create awareness about negative impact on health caused by using traditional fuels and need for switching to cleaner fuels. This shall help develop an overall robust institutional mechanism, which would work together to develop solutions in alleviating energy poverty. Also, it is important that institutions in different sector should have proactive approach, and they must plan and implement innovative measures at regular intervals for addressing the relevant challenge.
Creation of database for effective policy making: As discussed in the paper, there is strong linkage between the energy use and gender disparity. However there is absence of gender disaggregated data regarding energy consumption patterns and its impact. This acts as a major hindrance in effective policy designing and its implementation which deals with gender and energy related issues. As gender disparity is a crucial issue, it is important that the policies should be framed which directly address gender issues in energy access. Such measure would help in addressing gender related concern at the earliest. To facilitate policy makers and other relevant stakeholders it is important to gather data to understand intra household differences to clearly establish the relationship between energy, income and gender.
Targeted subsidies: Households using traditional energy sources for cooking and spending large portion of their income on energy fuels have no incentive to switch to clean fuels, such as LPG, which have high market value attached to them. Thus, to persuade this segment of households to use clean fuels, it is important that these fuels are available at subsidized price to them. This highlights the importance of providing subsidies to improve energy access. However, the provision of subsidies causes huge financial burden on the government. Thus, it is necessary that the subsidies should be provided to targeted households only, as mistargeted subsidies cause wasteful expenditure. The Integrated Energy Policy suggests the use of debit cards/smart cards with varying level of direct cash support for targeted households for purchase of selected commodities. However, these smart cards have not been implemented as yet, as there is lack of clarity in terms of institutional framework for implementing this programme. Also, this requires various stakeholders, such as financial institution for maintaining the accounts of the card, card manufacturers, NGOs for promoting and generating awareness on the usage of smart cards, and so on, to work together on proactive basis. Translating goals into implementable action: Policies in the energy sector in India recognise the linkage of energy poverty with income poverty and gender disparity. It is important that the measures suggested in the policies to alleviate energy poverty should be translated into implementable actions at the earliest. For instance, IEP recommendation on providing fuel wood access within one kilometre of households should be acted upon at the earliest by the concerned government agencies. Moreover, gradually such goals may be extended to cover other fuels such as Kerosene and LPG in due time. There is need to set up a monitoring mechanism to oversee implementation of policies in true spirit.
Innovative financial mechanism: Limited access to cleaner energy sources reveal that the high initial cost of certain appliances, such as solar cookers, often acts as a barrier to their penetration in the market. Thus, introduction of innovative financial schemes, wherein the upfront cost is reduced, will assume special significance among households. For instance, schemes wherein the initial cost of LPG connection is waived off by the government for poorer households will prove beneficial. Also, schemes that may provide a choice to a household for making payment in parts will act as an incentive to buy cleaner fuel, as it would not disturb the monthly expenditure to a large extent. Schemes promoting improved cook stove and solar cooker, wherein the payment for these appliances is made in instalments, acts as feel-good factors for households, as the extra payment made for these appliances on monthly basis is more or less financed though savings achieved by the usage of such appliances
Role of Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) and academia in alleviating energy poverty: As a large number of households, especially in the rural sector, have low education level and lower purchasing power, there is a need for educating these households towards the adoption of newer technology in terms of advanced cooking and lighting devices. This indicates that NGOs and academia can play an increasingly important role in creating awareness on new technology. NGOs may carry out demonstration programmes for these technologically advance devises, wherein the practical barriers and the inhibitions faced by the households in using newer devices are addressed in details. Also, it is expected that energy fuels especially for activity such as cooking requires certain changes in the lifestyle and manner of cooking as well. For instance, there would be some lifestyle changes in terms of timing of cooking when the household uses solar cookers. Thus, NGO may hold special promotional campaigns addressing the need for lifestyle changes among the household, which may persuade households towards adopting necessary change, and thus, improving energy security at the household level. Although there are certain NGO who are working in this direction, there is a need for replication of the similar effort on a larger scale. Community participation is necessary: It is observed that the success of any governmental programs for introduction of newer products/technology such as improved cookstoves or biogas is based on the participation of the targeted population. It is important to develop community based planning and management wherein the people from different household voluntarily sees benefit in adoption of product/technology. Participatory approach is often successful in bringing about the required change. Quoting an example of an NGO called Sarvangeen Vikas Samiti, which launched a project titled "Promotion of Sustainable Agricultural Activities through Demonstration of Bio-gas Plants and Others Allied Activities" in the year 2002. This NGO used Participatory rural appraisals (PRAs) exercises which helped in convincing many potential beneficiaries regarding functionality of biogas plants. It trained certain women group to equip them with both local knowledge and technical expertise and convinced them to adopt biogas technology. This group of women sets as an good example of benefits incurred with usage of biogas and thus such measures are then replicated by her fellow household people and is encouraging them towards the required change. Thus, it is suggested that participation of people should be ensured for convincing people to move up the energy ladder.
7. Conclusion Energy poverty in a country indicates the situation where there is lack of access to clean and efficient sources of energy to the households for their basic activities. India presently faces severe energy poverty concerns as 89% of rural households depend on polluting energy sources for cooking and access to electricity is limited to 56% households. Energy poverty has serious implications on income poverty and gender disparity at the household level. Access to clean and efficient sources of energy facilitates income generating activities and thus helps in alleviating income poverty. Also, usage of clean fuels eliminates the negative impact faced by women and children with usage of polluting fuels. Considering the level of energy poverty in the country, government is taking measure to alleviate the same. With measures taken to alleviate energy poverty, there is some gradual upward movement of households on the energy ladder wherein they from usage of biomass to LPG for cooking activity and from kerosene to electricity for lighting activity. However, there are certain regulatory and policy intervention required to accelerate the desired change.
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