Almost half of the households in Odisha use Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as their primary cooking fuel and 79 percent have LPG connections, according to a recent study by the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW).
However, as many as 73 percent of households continue to use solid fuels, either exclusively or by stacking them with LPG.
These findings are based on data collected from around 600 households in 6 districts in Odisha.
The study showed that LPG coverage in Odisha is better than in states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and West Bengal—but poorer than in 15 other states.
The CEEE study highlighted that LPG coverage is particularly low in Sundargarh and Deogarh districts. Further, around half of the households in Sundargarh and 1/4th of households in Deogarh use only solid fuels for cooking. Shalu Agrawal, Senior Programme Lead, CEEW, said, 21 percent of households in Odisha still lack LPG connections.
The CEEW study highlighted that 71 percent of Odisha households that use solid fuels along with LPG cite high cylinder costs as one of their reasons for stacking fuels.
This finding is significant in the context of the ongoing surge in LPG prices, which have risen by Rs 240 per cylinder (a 40 percent hike) over the past year. Lower household incomes during the pandemic and the suspension of LPG subsidies in May 2020 have made LPG unaffordable for a section of the population.
Sunil Mani, Programme Associate, CEEW, and lead author of the study, said, “given the high social costs of using solid fuels for cooking, we must strive to make LPG affordable and accessible through timely home delivery. The government should consider diverse strategies to disburse subsidies to deserving households.”