FARM LABOURER Mahadefrom Karnataka, sha groundnut farmer R Chandrashekharreddy from Andhra Pradesh, homemaker Geeta from Haryana and slum dweller Naresh from Ghaziabad are facing the same dilemma. The cost of a liquified petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder has crossed over ₹1,000 on the back of regular price revisions and this is forcing them to make unfair choices about their basic standard of life.
"If I buy an LPG cylinder now, then I will not be able to send my children to school this month," says 35-year-old Mahadesha from Thigadahalli village in Karnataka. His calculation is simple. Over the past year, LPG cylinders have become almost ₹200 costlier, which is half of what he spends on sending his two children to school (see 'Constant pinch' on p15). "If we continue to use LPG, then cooking fuel alone would eat up one-fourth of my household income," he says.
Some 600 km away, Chandrashekharreddy, the owner of a two-hectare farm in Kandukur village in Andhra Pradesh, is busy setting up a firewood stove at home. "I simply cannot afford LPG with my monthly income of ₹8,500 anymore," he says. Almost 10 per cent of the households in his village have already rolled back to using fuelwood. "Most other families are also thinking of going the same way," he says.
In the pre-pandemic period, an average poor household in the country could at most spend ₹15 a day, or ₹450 a month, on cooking fuel, says Svati Bhogle, founder of Sustaintech India Private Limited, a company that provides fuel-efficient cookstove to women street food vendors in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. "The income of most poor families have shrunk after the pandemic. A ₹200 rise in LPG basically means it has become out of reach for them," says Bhogle.
Denne historien er fra August 16, 2022-utgaven av Down To Earth.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra August 16, 2022-utgaven av Down To Earth.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Trade On Emissions
EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, a tariff on imports, is designed to protect European industries in the guise of climate action.
'The project will facilitate physical and cultural decimation of indigenous people'
The Great Nicobar Project has all the hallmarks of a disaster-seismic, ecological, human. Why did it get the go-ahead?
TASTE IT RED
Popularity of Karnataka's red jackfruit shows how biodiversity can be conserved by ensuring that communities benefit from it
MANY MYTHS OF CHIPKO
Misconceptions about the Chipko movement have overshadowed its true objectives.
The politics and economics of mpox
Africa's mpox epidemic stems from delayed responses, neglect of its health risks and the stark vaccine apartheid
Emerging risks
Even as the world gets set to eliminate substances threatening the ozone layer, climate change and space advancement pose new challenges.
JOINING THE CARBON CLUB
India's carbon market will soon be a reality, but will it fulfil its aim of reducing emissions? A report by PARTH KUMAR and MANAS AGRAWAL
Turn a new leaf
Scientists join hands to predict climate future of India's tropical forests
Festering troubles
The Democratic Republic of Congo struggles to contain mpox amid vaccine delays, conflict and fragile healthcare.
India sees unusual monsoon patterns
THE 2024 southwest monsoon has, between June 1 and September 1, led to excess rainfall in western and southern states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, while others like Nagaland, Manipur and Punjab recorded a deficit.