Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan

NEW DELHI: Ujjwala, the Narendra Modi government’s flagship social welfare programme providing LPG connection free of cost to poor households, has helped ease chest congestion among rural women by 20%, according to a joint study by Indian Chest Society and Indian Chest Research Foundation.

The study, published in the International Journal of Medical and Health Research, an Indian publication, was conducted on 120 females in the 20-50 age group chosen from attendants of patients seeking treatment for chest ailments. It found women using LPG with improved medical parameters pertaining to chest function over those using traditional biomass fuels.

Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan , who has lead the scheme’s implementation since May 2016, on Monday described the outcome as “the most satisfactory part of the scheme” and said it has also helped bring more than 27% poor above BPL (below poverty line).

“Ujjwala scheme has set an example in the direction of making women empowered. It also impacts the environment as well as health and economic condition of the women,” he told Parliament, adding that nearly nine out of 10 beneficiaries bought a refill. “Adoption and use of LPG on a sustained basis by a beneficiary involves behavioural change and also depends on several factors, including food and cooking habits, LPG price, availability of free firewood, cow dung etc.”

Ujjwala has made it to the Guinness record books as the world’s largest direct benefit transfer scheme and currently has more than seven crore beneficiaries. It has a target of reaching eight crore poor households as part of PM Modi’s bid to provide energy justice.

The study was designed to compare the pulmonary functions in healthy women who had used either biomass or LPG as their sole cooking fuel for at least 10 years. The women were divided in two groups of 60 each on the basis of their cooking fuel — biomass such as dung cake, firewood etc.

Biomass fuels accounted for 50% of energy consumption in India in 1989, according to Energy Data Directory and Year book by Delhi-based energy think-tank Teri, but no current estimates are available. The World Health Organisation ranks indoor pollution as the 10th preventable risk factors contributing to the global burden of a disease. Around 1.5- 2 million deaths per year are attributed to indoor air pollution, mainly affecting children under below five years due to acute respiratory infections, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer among women.

