India is home to 24 crore families, out of which more than 10 crore families have no access at all to clean cooking fuel such as LPG. Most of the families lacking access to clean fuel are from rural areas where women rely on wood, charcoal, coal and cow-dung cakes as the source of fuel.

In the traditional patriarchal Indian society, the household duties such as collecting water, wood and leaves for cooking and looking after children falls on the women of the house. Apart from spending huge chunks of their time in collecting the wood, women were directly exposed to the severe environmental pollution due to burning of the above fuel which according to World Health Organisation is equal to smoking 400 cigarettes a day.

Due to the general poor health of women and girl children in the Indian rural families where boys are in general preferred, the exposure to pollution severely affected their health for centuries.

To safeguard their health and empower the women of the below poverty line (BPL) families of most backward rural areas, Prime Minister Narendra Modi started one of the most ambitious projects, Prime Minister Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) to provide free LPG connections with a support of Rs 1,600 per connection on May 1, 2016. The project aimed to provide 5 crore connections over the next three years. To make the project a mega success to achieve true empowerment of women, he entrusted his one of the most hardworking and prominent cabinet ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Cabinet Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, a prominent leader and a household name from the State of Odisha in charge of the scheme.

Under Pradhan’s stewardship and guidance from PM Modi, the project has been effectively implemented all over the country with as of now more than 6.5 crore BPL families benefitted from the clean cooking gas without any cost. The successful implementation of PM Ujjwala scheme generated a further employment of 1 lakh jobs and more than 10,000 crores for the industry through make in India campaign to build cylinders, gas stoves and associated paraphernalia.

The impact of access to clean energy by the rural women due to PM Modi’s visionary and well-formed policy and Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s effective implementation of it all over the country, truly empowered women and the benefits are unique and manifold such as freed up the time spent by collecting fuel from the forest which now the women are utilising in effective income generating activities through self help groups apart from the marked benefit to their health such us prevention of respiratory illnesses.

The PMUY has revolutionised the clean LPG cooking fuel use in India and as PM Modi said in May, 2018, that in the last 4 years alone nearly 10 crore of LPG connections were given as compared to 13 crore in the last 60 years. One of the brightest facets of this excellently implemented scheme is half of the connections given under the PMUY are Dalit families who are the most backward and many of them are yet to enjoy the benefits of civilised society most of the middle- and upper-class families of India take it for granted.

To further establish an emotional and deeper contact with the PMUY beneficiaries, Dharmendra Pradhan established the LPG Panchayats to harness their experience as well as integrate the beneficiaries to an ever-expanding knowledge base for triggering a sustainable and a viable peoples mass movement around safe use of LPG gas through the Ujjwala scheme.

In a patriarchal society such as India, true women empowerment will only happen through a sustained investment in areas such as health, education, security and employment which will give a voice to women in the society. Well-formed and successfully implemented schemes such as Ujjawala is truly a game changer in empowering women and bringing their effective economical inclusion in to the society along with other highly successful schemes such as Jan Dhan Yojana where nearly 18 crore women became the beneficiaries of having a bank account for the first time in independent India and Swachh Bharat Mission where over 9 crores toilets are built providing women with the privacy and dignity.

(Dr Biswal is BJP Mahila Morcha State vice-president)