Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY)- A Household Scheme for Uplifting Rural Women

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar had once said in an international women's conference that women represent courage with compassion, abundance with values, valour with love and wisdom with vision. In women lie the seeds of the most powerful social transformations. Ironically, in our country and many other countries of the world too, a substantial majority of women are not treated with dignity and often they encounter various kinds of misbehavior.

Particularly in rural households of India, a woman has to spend long arduous hours working in the kitchen and earning for her family. Often her health needs are hugely compromised in the process and she is also subject to many environmental pollutants.

To benefit such women (to ease their burdens) a scheme was introduced by the Government of India on 1st May 2016, named- Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY). Under this welfare scheme, approximately 5 crore families (particularly the BPL women) were pledged concessional LPG connections by the year 2019. The scheme intended (intends) to increase the use of LPG and thereby reduce health disorders, air pollution and deforestation. The larger mission of this scheme that was introduced by the Government with the motto- 'Swachh Indhan, Behtar Jeevan' was also to create a smoke free rural India. Needles to say most of rural Indian households had relied on charcoal stoves etc for cooking.

The primary objective of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana is to provide clean cooking fuel (LPG) to below poverty line households in the country. In other words it envisages ensuring universal coverage of cooking gas in the country.

Here are some scheme related components-The beneficiaries are identified through Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC). Those who do not get covered under SECC shall be identified from categories like SC/ STs households, beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY, Gramin), Antodaya Anna Yojana (AAY), forest dwellers, etc.

Today the number of households have been increased from the initial 5 crore to 8 crores.

A important component is the Pradhan Mantri LPG Panchayats, which are essentially peer learning platforms that provide support and catalyze behavior changes in Ujjwala beneficiaries and encourage safe and sustainable use of LPG. Ujjwala Didi is yet another component in the implementation of this scheme. This is a corporate social responsibility handholding initiative that aims at creating a force of 10,000 grass root educators who will be able to take forward the cardinal messages like - cleaning cooking fuel is made universally available, clean cooking fuel is affordable and LPG becomes safe to use and is insured. The 'Ujjwala Didi' shall facilitate refill, address any fear around LPG safety, help in resolving any grievances and facilitate any new connections.

So what are the benefits of the scheme? It empowers women and protects their health by saving them from inhaling indoor air pollution. It reduces drudgery and the time spent on cooking. It is also helping to provide employment to the rural youth in the supply chain of cooking gas.

So what are the documents required to avail this scheme? Below poverty line ration card, Below poverty line certificate authorized by panchayat pradhan or the municipality chairman, one photo ID- Adhaar card or voter ID, one recent passport size photograph and the basic details such as name, contact details, Jan Dhan or bank account number, adhar card number etc.

In terms of the eligibility criteria, the applicant should be a woman above the 18 years of age. The applicant needs to be a rural inhabitant carrying a BPL card. The woman applicant should have a savings bank account in any nationalized bank of the country in order to get the subsidized amount and the applicant's household should not be having a prior LPG connection.

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