Modi's Ujjwala Effect: over 1.5 lakh lives saved in a year, 13% reduction in air pollution deaths.

Modi's Ujjwala Effect: Research found over 1.5 lakh lives saved in a year, 13% reduction in air pollution deaths.

In May 2016, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas , introduced the ‘Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana as a flagship scheme with an objective to make clean cooking fuel such as LPG available to the rural and deprived households which were otherwise using traditional cooking fuels such as firewood, coal, cow-dung cakes etc. Usage of traditional cooking fuels had detrimental impacts on the health of rural women as well as on the environment.

The scheme was launched on 1st May 2016 in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri. Narendra Modi with slogan of ‘clean fuel and better life’.

According to the WHO, smoke from a stone causes the same harm as burning 400 cigarettes in an hour. According to WHO more than 5 lakh women have to lose their lives every year due to cooking with fossil fuel in India.

Achievement

Total 9 crore connection released under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana as on 31 Jan 2022.

Effect of this program

The effect of this program of the government is being seen that due to the use of LPG gas for cooking, 1.5 lakh lives have been saved out of pollution deaths in the year 2019 itself.

PM 2.5 emissions reductions are estimated to be at least 1.8 million tonnes that year due to the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana.

Ajay Nagpure, Ritesh Patidar and Vandana Tyagi, who have been working in the field of environment for a long time, have been working for the World Resource Institute (WRI) India for a long time. All three have done this study. Nagpure has done his PhD from IIT Roorkee and has been working on environmental pollution for 18 years. Before coming to India in 2019, he worked with the Center for Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at the Hubert Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.

Vandana Tyagi is also an environmental engineer and was a Research Fellow at IIT Roorkee. Patidar, who graduated in 2017 from the same institute, is researching sustainable clean cooking energy solutions, air pollution and related policies. These researchers believe that the benefits of the Ujjwala scheme that are being told can actually be more than that.