Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana – A boon during Covid-19

Mumbai

24.07.2020

In order to provide environment friendly clean cooking fuel to women especially in rural areas to get rid of health hazards faced by them due to use of traditional fuel, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana was launched on 1^st May, 2016 by Hon’ble Prime Minister Sh. Narendra Modi from Balia in Uttar Pradesh. This Yojana had multipronged objectives such as getting rid of hazardous traditional cooking fuel, empowering women, supporting & promoting use of LPG etc.

Since the launch of #PMUY, LPG penetration in Indian households has increased from around 55 % to over 97%, at present.

A challenging target of providing 5 crore LPG connections was set up for Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) viz. HPCL, IOCL & BPCL under PMUY. With tremendous display of efficiency and efficacy, the target was achieved much before the target date by OMCs. In view of tremendous success of the Yojana, a revised target of providing 8 crore LPG connections was set up.

OMCs under the guidance of Hon’ble Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Sh. Dharmendra Pradhan, achieved the revised target of providing 8 crore LPG connections in September, 2019,much ahead of the target date.

In order to spread awareness & educate PMUY beneficiaries ‘LPG Panchayats’ were conceptualized and launched during 2017. LPG Panchayats brought together PMUY beneficiaries on a semi-structured interactive platform to discuss safe & sustainable usage of LPG along with  its benefits and the linkage between usage of clean cooking fuel and Women’s empowerment. Each & every LPG Panchayat shared the experience of early local adopters of LPG, an exercise on comparing the costs of alternative biomass fuels, safety demonstration & feedback on services by the distribution network of Oil Industry. LPG Panchayats were highly impactful in achieving the set objectives, which were mainly due to wholehearted efforts& involvement of “LPG Didis” who were from amongst the locals and provided energy services & solutions in their role as catalysts of social change. The success of LPG Panchayats was evidentas LPG usage increased gradually& steadilywith LPG becoming one of the most accepted fuels, especially with village women.

The advent of Covid-19 around the Globe &in India resulted in various measures by GoI to control the spread including countrywide lockdown leading to new challenges for the poor households. The poor households bore maximum impact with income of these families gettingadversely affected due to suspension of economic activity because of nationwide lockdown to combat Covid-19. To overcome the economic impact of COVID-19, GoIannounced a relief package under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) with various support initiatives for those affected by COVID-19. One of the initiatives under PMGKY was to supply 3 free LPG refills to the 8 crore PMUY beneficiaries during April – June, 2020, across the Country.

An estimated over 10 crore free LPG refills were supplied under PMGKY by HPCL & OMCs. HPCL supplied more than 2.85 crore free LPG refills at doorsteps of its PMUY beneficiaries during April – June, 2020, helping the PMUY beneficiaries  during this unprecedented crisis.

As Covid-19 pandemic is still continuing and  normal working taking time to resume to full capacity, GoIhas extended timelines for PMUY beneficiaries to avail the free LPG refills under PMGKY until September 2020 instead of June 2020.

This particular  initiative of door delivery of free LPG refills to poor households in the country,has helped them not only sustain their living  but also has significantly reduced their chances of getting infected with  doorstep deliveries, bringing smiles and happiness in their lives, in these tough times.