Planning to improve accessibility to clean cooking fuels through gender perspective

Abstract

Energy poverty which is a global phenomenon is faced by many people due to lack of access to sustainable sources of energy services. In people’s daily lives, energy provides essential services for cooking and heating, lighting, food production and storage, education and health services, industrial production, and transportation. However, there is a real energy gap between industrialized areas and poor areas, mainly rural and peri-urban communities where obtaining energy for basic human needs is a daily challenge. In those areas, wood, biomass and agricultural wastes provide most of the energy that is available, and there is less access to electricity or modern fuels for cooking, heating, mechanized equipment or motor vehicles. In rural areas, farmers, fishers and foresters often still rely on traditional fuels like wood, charcoal and dung, for cooking, heat and light. They generally burn these fuels using simple technologies characterised by low energy efficiency and harmful emissions. The studies related to gender specific roles in energy sector and how it is linked to sustainable development has been referred through various papers. It gave the direction to find the gap identified for the study that is the issues related with energy poverty in context to socio-spatial elements has been less explored with the gender specific perception. Thus, the aim for the study focuses on to explore the linkages between energy poverty and climate change with addressing the role of women empowerment. The study will mainly focus on the daily activities of women contributing towards increase in green-house gas emissions which will be limited to the activities linked with household related work. Energy Poverty occurs mainly in areas where people cannot afford the environmentally safe and reliable sources of energy to support development according to world economic forum. In developing countries, lack of access to energy is an obstacle to women’s well-being and economic opportunities, as it strongly affects their living conditions. According to United Nations Development Programme, there are more than two billion people who are unable to obtain clean, safe fuels and rely on burning traditional biomass fuels such as wood, dung and crop residues. Therefore, without access to efficient and affordable energy sources, they have very limited opportunities for economic and social advancement. A focus on gender issues is particularly important in this context since many of the world’s poorest people are women living in rural areas in developing countries who are currently dependent on subsistence agriculture to feed their families, and who are disproportionately affected by the lack of modern fuels and power sources for farming, household maintenance and productive enterprises. The study will explore the ways to eradicate the issues associated with energy poverty in the study area that can be replicated to other areas having the similar characteristics. It will also provide recommendations on measures to address energy poverty in a gender equitable way. The proposed strategies will contribute to achieving sustainable development. The findings can guide further and immediate city funding decisions to mitigate pressing environmental health issues due to unclean fuel practices in Indore slum areas. Strengthening community based organizations and advocacy networks in these communities and similar areas across the city and peripheral areas can improve bottom-up, demand-driven city planning, and improve the equity of access to health services and healthy environments, leading to a healthier urban and rural areas for all.