Global Health Economics
Clean Cooking and Household Air Pollution
Why smoke from cooking fires is one of the world's biggest health risks, and what India's Ujjwala scheme teaches about the gap between access and use.
For billions of people, cooking means burning wood, dung, crop waste or coal indoors. The smoke is a major health hazard, especially for women and young children who spend the most time near the stove.
The health burden
The World Health Organization estimates that household air pollution from cooking with polluting fuels causes about 3 million deaths a year worldwide, from pneumonia, heart disease, stroke, lung disease and lung cancer. Smoke also harms children’s lungs and contributes to outdoor air pollution.
Other costs
- Time: women and girls often spend hours each week collecting firewood.
- Education: girls may miss school to gather fuel.
- Environment: unsustainable wood collection contributes to forest degradation.
India’s Ujjwala scheme
In 2016, India launched Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, which provides free LPG connections to women in poor households. It has provided more than 100 million connections, greatly expanding access to clean cooking fuel.
The refill problem
Access is not the same as use. Studies found that many Ujjwala households:
- Refilled cylinders infrequently, because a full refill required a large payment at one time.
- Continued using free firewood alongside LPG, called fuel stacking.
- Lived far from distributors.
To encourage use, the government introduced a larger targeted subsidy per cylinder for Ujjwala beneficiaries and smaller cylinder options. Refill rates have improved, but many households still mix fuels.
Economic lessons
- Liquidity constraints: like sachets, smaller and more frequent purchases can help poor households afford clean fuel.
- Opportunity cost: where firewood is free to collect, LPG seems expensive, even though women’s time and health have real value.
- Habits and preferences: some families prefer the taste of food cooked on traditional stoves.
Other solutions
- Improved cookstoves that burn wood more efficiently, though evidence on their real-world health benefits has been mixed.
- Electric cooking, including induction stoves, as electricity access and solar power expand.
- Biogas from animal waste.
A family in a village receives a free LPG connection. They use it for tea and quick meals, but when the cylinder runs out, they wait weeks to refill because a refill costs a large sum at once. Meanwhile, the mother cooks the main meals on the wood stove, still breathing smoke.
Connections are only the first step. Affordability of refills, supply and habits determine whether clean fuel is actually used.
- Household air pollution causes about 3 million deaths a year worldwide.
- Collecting fuel costs women and girls time and education.
- Ujjwala provided over 100 million LPG connections, but refill rates lagged.
- Affordability, supply and habits determine whether clean fuel is used.
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