Deepened socioeconomic inequality in clean cooking fuel use in India from 2005-2006 to 2015-2016

Samarul Islam; Md Juel Rana; Matthew Shupler

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e17041

Deepened socioeconomic inequality in clean cooking fuel use in India from 2005-2006 to 2015-2016

Heliyon. 2023 Jun 10;9(6):e17041. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e17041. eCollection 2023 Jun.

Authors

Samarul Islam^{1

2

3}, Md Juel Rana⁴, Matthew Shupler⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Population and Development, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Govandi Station Road, Deonar, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400088, India.
² Economics Group, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400076, India.
³ Public Health and Society, Department of Health Sciences, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, United Kingdom.
⁴ G. B. Pant Social Science Institute, Prayagraj, India.
⁵ Department of Epidemiology, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.

Abstract

Uptake of clean cooking fuels (CCF), such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), in place of traditional cooking fuels such as wood, charcoal, and kerosene can improve public health by reducing household air pollution exposures. Though studies have cross-sectionally examined socioeconomic determinants of cooking fuel adoption, little is known about socioeconomic disparities in CCF use over time. Data from the third (2005-06) and fourth (2015-16) rounds of the National Family Health Survey covering 109,041 and 601,509 households, respectively, were used to examine inequities in CCF use in India. While CCF use in India increased nationally from 25% in 2005-06 to 44% in 2015-16, the adoption of CCF varied widely across states and socio-economic groups. Approximately 2% of households in the poorest wealth quintile gained access to LPG during the study period, compared with an increase of 10% or more among households in the middle or richer wealth quintiles; the LPG access gap between the low (0.2%) and middle class (19.2%) was 19% in 2005-06 and nearly doubled to 35% (2.5% vs. 37.4%, respectively) in 2015-16. At the state level, there was a four-fold difference in the uptake of CCF over the two survey periods. The use of CCF increased by less than 10% in Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, and Meghalaya as compared to the increases of at least 30% in Tamil Nadu (42%), undivided Andhra Pradesh (34%), and Kerala (30%). Further, in wealthier states (Delhi, Goa, Punjab, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and undivided Andhra Pradesh), CCF use increased by more than 20% among the poorest individuals compared with less than 1% among the poorest families in lower income states (Tripura, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar). To promote a more equitable clean energy transition, poorer and rural Indian households should be prioritized for CCF promotion programs.

Keywords: Clean cooking; Concentration index; Decomposition; Liquefied petroleum gas; National Family Health Survey; Socioeconomic disparities.