India
In India, over 789 million people – nearly 60 percent of the population – depend on polluting, open fires or inefficient stoves to cook their food. Cooking this way can increase exposure to household air pollution, increasing the risks of contracting a range of diseases including childhood pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, ischemic heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer. In India alone, nearly half a million deaths each year can be attributed to household air pollution from cooking and heating. Women and girls, who often spend hours cooking and collecting fuels, are disproportionately affected.
Reliance on wood and charcoal for cooking and heating also contributes to environmental degradation. About 23 percent of woodfuel harvested in India is unsustainable. In addition, burning fuels like wood, charcoal, coal, and kerosene contributes to climate change through emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, and short-lived climate pollutants like black carbon.
India is home to some of the world’s most polluted cities, and Alliance-funded research shows that household air pollution from cooking and heating is a major contributor, responsible for up to 25 percent of outdoor air pollution.
Clean Cooking Can Help
The use of cleaner, more modern stoves and fuels can dramatically reduce exposure to toxic smoke, lowering the associated risk factors for disease. Clean cooking can also help reduce forest degradation, address climate change, and cut down on the time that families - usually women and girls - spend cooking and collecting fuels, freeing up time for income-generating activities or schoolwork.
Progress
Over the past five years, India has seen unprecedented progress in scaling up clean cooking, including connecting over 60 million households to Liquified Petroleum Gas under the Prime Minister’s initiative Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana.
Alliance efforts to support clean cooking in India include:
- Supporting a behavior change campaign in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat
- Engaging with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in collaboration with UNICEF and WHO, to develop a strategy for including clean cooking as part of India’s integrated Action Plan for Prevention of Pneumonia and Diarrhea
- Forming strategic partnerships with Tata Trusts, the Indian Council for Medical Research, the Energy and Resources Institute, SEWA, Indian corporations, and others, as part of the overall approach in India
- Awarding a grant to Greenway Appliances through the Spark program, which the company used to set up a full-fledged factory; Greenway has since become the India's largest stove manufacturer
Number of deaths per year attributable to household air pollution - 481,700 (WHO, 2016)
Percentage of woodfuel harvest that is unsustainable - 23% (Bailis et al., 2015)
Centre at IIT Delhi
2012 - India
The Energy and Resources Institute, (TERI)
2012 - India
Greenway Grameen Infra
2012 - India
Greenway Grameen Infra
2014 - India
Prakti Pvt Ltd
2014 - Bangladesh, India
Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA)
2014 - India
Indian Institute of Technology (ITT), Delhi
2015 - India
Frontier Markets
2015 - India
Essmart Global, Inc.
2015 - India
Biolite, Inc.
2015 - India
Gajam India Private Limited
2017 - India
Intellectual Capital Advisory Services
2014 - India, Kenya
NoKooda Solution Systems Pvt. Ltd
2014 - India
Small Scale Sustainable Infrastructure Development Fund
2016 - India
Council on Energy, Environment and Water ( CEEW)
2017 - India
Intellectual Capital Advisory Services
2015 - India
Frontier Markets
2015 - India
Essmart Global, Inc.
2015 - India
Envirofit International
2016 - India
Public Health Institute
2013 - India
Yale University, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
2014 - India
Public Health Institute
2014 - India
Urban Emissions Pvt. Ltd.
2014 - India