Authors: Haritha, Kunjika Gupta, Shiven Mittal, Rajat Gaba, Urmil Vasa and Varun Ganesh
Over the years, the government has launched several schemes to benefit the people living below poverty line. There are schemes like Jeevan Jyoti Bim Yojana, Jan Dhan Yojana and National Social Assistance Scheme which are targeted specifically to the BPL populace. But if there is one scheme that complements all the other schemes, it is the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY). This scheme was launched with an objective to provide subsidized LPG connections to around five crore families that fall below poverty line. Out of a total of 24 crore households, 10 crore were still deprived of clean sources of fuel for cooking before this scheme was launched. This scheme, admired by the WHO in their pollution report, is bringing a positive change in the lives of the weaker sections of society.
PMUY comes under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, which also oversees its implementation through various public sector undertakings (PSUs) like the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL). All states and union territories come under the ambit of PMUY.
At the time of the launch of PMUY, the Government of India had authorized Five crore deposit free LPG connections to be set up for Below Poverty Line (BPL) households by 31st March 2019. In August 2018, the Union Government released the data on the status of the installations according to which the targets which they had set at the beginning had been met eight months ahead of schedule. Given this huge success, the Union Government announced a second phase of scheme under which they revised this target to 8 crore households by 2020 with an allocated budget of Rs. 12,800 crores.
In the first phase of implementation, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Odisha comprised nearly 65% of the installations provided under the scheme and nearly 47% of those who received the connection are members from the weaker sections of the society i.e. SC/ST.
The launch of the second phase is already underway with Union representatives in J&K and Delhi already announcing the broad outline of the implementation plan. They also announced that 20th April 2018 will be recognized as “Ujawala Diwas”. On this day new LPG connections will be provided to beneficiaries who have already been identified.
The PMUY is one of the most aggressively promoted social welfare schemes under the current government. That said, it is also one of the most ambitious projects where the government intends to cover nearly half of the BPL families. Under this scheme, the government has met almost 70% of the intended target by adding almost 36 million new LPG subscribers within 26 months of the launch. PMUY was also supported by a robust infrastructure and logistical support that formed the base of the 16932 strong LPG distributor network. There were nearly 27.72 crore households and 25.68 crore households that had an LPG connection by April, 2018- an increase of 16.28% since the launch of PMUY. The scheme also witnessed an increase of 9.83% in the active users. PMUY has been an access centric project that has used the learnings from previous schemes in an efficient manner.
Before the introduction of PMUY, several other similar schemes were introduced by various public and private entities: PAHAL, GivItUp Campaign, Corpus Fund Scheme, Delhi Kerosene Fund Scheme, Rajiv Gandhi Gramin LPG Vitaran Yojana (RGGLV).
The aim of RGGLV scheme was to increase the population coverage of LPG, focusing mainly on rural areas with lower coverage. The scheme proposed to achieve 75% coverage in the rural areas by providing 5.5 crore new LPG connections by the end of 2015. The then government planned to achieve that target by setting up low cost distribution centers across the country. This scheme was one of the pillar programs designed to achieve the objective of ‘Vision 2015’.
PAHAL, an initiative by the Central Government was aimed at improvising the current subsidy distribution channels by cutting subsidy leakages. This was the largest Direct Benefit Scheme that tried to remove the ghost accounts and fake accounts to improve the disbursing efficiency. “GiveItUp” aimed to inspire well off families to voluntarily give up their LPG subsidy and the benefits then transferred to the BPL families. More than 1.04 crore families gave up their subsidy benefits in this drive.
As per a WHO report, “4 million people die prematurely from illness attributable to the household air pollution from cooking with solid fuels”. The smoke that comes out of burning solid fuels causes respiratory distress and conditions such as lung cancer and pulmonary diseases. This scheme has helped people move towards the use of cleaner fuel, leading to a reduction of such diseases. Ujjwala specifically targets the women of the families by crediting the subsidy amount to their bank accounts and empowering them to make financial decisions for their families. Since cooking on gas is efficient, the women now save time and effort needed to collect firewood. This time could be spent on other household work or activities that uplift their social and economic status. The employment generated by this scheme in the form of expansion of LPG industry is just the icing on the cake.
The primary reason of the limited reach of LPG connection in poor households was high investment of installing such connections and the high cost of continued usage of LPG cylinders. With the implementation of the scheme the installation is being provided free of cost which will ensure universal coverage of LPG in India. The government even brought 5kg cylinders under the ambit of the scheme to ensure that the poor do not have to make large initial payments.
Going forward the government can implement a payment process that allows households to pay for these cylinders in installments. Doing this will alleviate any additional strain on their already stretched disposable income. Installment based method will make the whole process smoother and attract more household to take advantage of this scheme. PMUY is making a positive difference in the lives of the people below poverty line. With the help of campaigns such as “Giveitup” it can hope to deliver where other schemes have failed.
References:
The Poor Got LPG Cylinders under Modi’s Scheme But They Can’t Afford Gas Refills
https://thewire.in/government/pradhan-mantri-ujjwala-yojana-separating-fact-from-fiction
2nd-phase-of-PMUY-being-launched-to-cover-SC-ST-households
http://www.knskashmir.com/2nd-phase-of-PMUY-being-launched-to-cover-SC-ST-households–others–Zulfkar-25553
https://currentaffairs.gktoday.in/tags/pradhan-mantri-ujjwala-yojana
Modi’s Gas for the Poor Scheme Marred by Data Inflation, Poor Implementation (2018).
https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/oil-and-gas/oil-minister-dharmendra-pradhan-launches-pmuy-scheme-in-delhi/63663688
India’s failure to provide LPG to rural areas is killing people and ruining the country’s air (2015).
https://thewire.in/government/pradhan-mantri-ujjwala-yojana-separating-fact-from-fiction
http://googleweblight.com/i?u=http://petroleum.nic.in/marketing/schemes/lpg-schemes&hl=en-IN
https://www.thequint.com/news/india/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-pradhan-mantri-ujjwala-yojana
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