DIVYA BISHT

INDEPENDENT STUDY PROJECTSIT STUDY ABROAD

HEALTH AND HUMAN RIGHTS SPRING 2014

The Women of Uttarakhand: A Chullah

Workforce

Research Question

How do chullahs, both traditional and improved, effect the lives of women in rural Uttarakhand? Health, children’s health, and work productivity

How are improved cookstove initiatives being implemented in Uttarakhand?

How effective have these initiatives been in improving women’s lives?

Background

An International glance:Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves

3 billion people lack access to clean cookstoves and fuels

Goal is to foster the adoption of clean cookstoves and fuels in 100 million households by 2020

UNDP Millennium Development Goals Reduce child mortality, Improve Maternal Health and

Ensure Environmental Sustainability

An Indian glance –

Majority of India’s population is still rural

Indian population that depends on solid fuel as a primary source: 67% Rural population: 87%(Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves)

Indoor Air Pollution & Burning Solid Fuels

Health Hazards “Day in and day out, and for hours at a time, women and their

small children breathe in amounts of smoke equivalent to consuming two packs of cigarettes per day.” – (WHO, 2006)

Black carbon emissions “Biomass cooking causes about two-thirds of black carbon

emissions in South Asia.” – Climatologist Veerabhadran Ramanathan

Deforestation 275-400 million of the Indian population are forest dependent Local livelihood dependence results in degradation

(WHO, 2010)

Methods

Interviews and ObservationsFieldwork was conducted in:

Uttarkashi district, Uttarakhand in the Dhari and Himrol villages (5 days)

Haridwar district, Uttarakhand in the Rasulpur village (day visit)

Dehradun district, Uttarakhand in the Donkwala village (day visit)

The Traditional Chullah

Dhari Village, Uttarkashi

Women of Uttarkashi

Cook with indoor chullahPrimary fuel source: wood Women collect wood from

far away 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Symptoms of smoke exposure: Primarily eye pain and

coughing LPG stove access

Inconsistent supply Too expensive

Panchi’s story

Panchi from Naugaon, Uttarkashi went from:

Traditional stove toChimney stove toLPG stove

Chullahs in Rasulpur village

Outdoor traditional chullahs

About three years ago, Friends of Doon Society gave smokeless chullahs to some families in Rasulpur village

Chullahs were used for about three months and then fell into disuse

A failed project…

Why the failure?

Chullahs required the wood to be chopped into small blocks to insert

Incident in Rasulpur is demonstrative of failures of cookstove projects across India

Major knowledge gap between manufacturers and rural villagers

National Program for Improved Cookstoves

1984 to 2002 34 million improved stoves were produced Rs 1.5 billion spent ($32 billion USD)

But:Lack of field monitoring and evaluationNo development of market mechanisms In 2002, program was decentralized

Different places, different cookstoves

Diet preferences are diverse across different regions in India

Uttarakhand: high-energy food necessities due to cold temperatures

Improved cookstoves should: Have higher heat efficiency Capability to go from low to high heat intensity Sustain long periods of cooking

India’s food zones

National Biomass Cookstoves Initiative

Launched in December 2009 – one of the largest in the developed world

Supports local level training and employment opportunities

Acknowledges the need to commercialize cookstoves

Monitoring and evaluation scheme

To conclude, back to the research questions…

How do chullahs, both traditional and improved, effect the lives of women in rural Uttarakhand? Health, children’s health, and work productivity

How are improved cookstove initiatives being implemented in Uttarakhand?

How effective have these initiatives been in improving women’s lives?

Personal Reflection

Adler, Tina. “Better Burning, Better Breathing: Improving Health with Cleaner Cook Stoves”, Environmental

Health Perspectives Vol. 118, No. 3 (2010):

Barnes, Douglas F., Kumar, Priti and Keith Openshaw., “Cleaner Hearths, Better Homes: New Stoves for

India and the Developing World,” (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2012).

De Sam Lazro, Fred. “In India, Battling Global Warming One Step At a Time.” PBS, December 17, 2009.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment-july-dec09-india_12-17/. (accessed April 24, 2014).

Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, Dalberg Global Development Advisors, India Cookstoves and Fuels

Market Assessment, 2013.

“National Biomass Cookstoves Programme”, Government of India: Ministry of New and Renewable Energy,

http://www.mnre.gov.in/schemes/decentralized-systems/national-biomass-cookstoves-initiative/. (accessed

April 18, 2014)

Nayak, Bhibhu P., Kohli, Priyanka and Dr. J.V. Sharma, “Livelihood of local communities and forest

degradation in India: Issues for REDD+”, Governmental of India: Ministry of Environment and Forest.

“Resources,” Vanashakti, http://www.vanashakti.in/resources_law2.html (accessed April 31, 2014)

Subramaniam, Mangala, “Designing Wood-Fired Cooking Stoves: Where Is the Woman?” Economic and

Political Weekly, Vol. 29, No. 20 (1994), 1177.

Tinker, Irene. “The Real Rural Energy Crisis: Women’s Time,” The Energy Journal, Vol. 8, Special LDC Issue

(1987), 131.

Works Cited