What’s cooking?

The kitchen has always played an important role in Indian politics. Leaders across political parties have cooked their electoral fortunes with the kitchen as the integral ingredient. While some distributed highly subsidised foodgrains, others doled out free appliances such as grinders and food processors. Most of them tasted success.

That is why when Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) on May 1 in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, many said it was more of a political strategy than a welfare scheme. Under the PMUY, women from below the poverty line, or BPL, families would be given LPG connections at a highly subsidised rate.

Unveiling the PMUY, Modi acknowledged the political flavour schemes can take: “Most of the people are yet to understand the power of cooking gas. I would like you to recall those days, when an MP was provided 25 coupons of cooking gas every year to distribute to the poor families. The MP used to proudly tell that he was providing LPG connections to 25 families in his constituency.” At the same time, the Prime Minister kept himself in the clear. Modi said: “We are aware of people pointing fingers at why Ballia was selected to launch this scheme. To the misfortune of our country, some people who are not in politics see nothing, but politics at each and every moment. Someone has written that Modi is going to sound poll bugle with today’s move. Oh my dear! We are not here to sound any poll bugle.” 

Whether the PMUY will pay dividend for the BJP or not only time will tell. A senior BJP leader from Jaunpur says that the focus on eastern UP is because of its lower usage of LPG, as compared to the western region.

But it doesn’t take away the need for such a programme, especially in the rural areas where the penetration of LPG usage is 15 per cent, nowhere near the national average of 61 per cent (World Bank puts the average at 36 per cent). In some of the eastern states’ villages, the penetration is 10 per cent. And that is why a successful PMUY would become a potent political weapon for the BJP in the 2017 Assembly Elections.

BJP leaders continue to reiterate the welfare part of the programme. One of them said, on conditions of anonymity, that the work on PMUY started in 2015. It is a combined effort of South Block (that houses Prime Minister’s office) where the scheme’s seeds were sown, North Block (houses Finance Ministry) where numbers were worked, and Shastri Bhavan (houses Ministry for Petroleum & Natural Gas) which implements the programme.

In March 2016, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the scheme and ₹8,000 crore was earmarked for providing five crore LPG connections to BPL households over the next three years.

The scheme gives each new user a financial support of ₹1,600.  The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in his Union Budget this year, announced a provision of ₹2,000 crore to provide 1.5 crore deposit-free LPG connections in 2016-17. 

Apart from the budgetary support, says Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Petroleum & Natural Gas, “A unique funding concept is being followed. Money saved from #GiveItUp scheme – savings from surrendered LPG subsidy – is being used for this programme.”

With financing in place, the next challenge was to identify the rightful beneficiary. While the government decided to depend upon the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 data, and not on the distribution of BPL cards, it also asked the governments in the state and union territories to help identify the needy. “Nobody can ask us to give a connection or not. This scheme is not driven by local pradhan or MLA,” says a senior official in the finance ministry. He didn’t want to be named as he is not authorised to talk to the media.  

There are other challenges too. Till now, many schemes meant for women have ended up benefitting the men. The PMUY had to be different to have the right impact. “Firstly, the connection is in the name of the woman, and the subsidy goes into the account of the woman. These two conditions would make it difficult for the man to appropriate the scheme’s benefit,” the official, quoted above, pointed out. 

Another problem that the Ministry has taken cognisance of is that of middlemen. “For this we are spreading awareness so that consumers take the connection only from authorised dealer networks,” the official said.

Perhaps the biggest challenge is to convince women to start using LPG. Few of them are comfortable cooking with a stove and most are wary of having a cylinder. Many are concerned about the cost of refilling a cylinder. Sabita, a young woman from Bihar, says that taste of the food cooked on a chullah , the traditional stove, is far better. And she is not the only one. Some are also shying away due to logistics.

“We have heard all kinds of cultural arguments against LPG cylinders,” said an official from a PSU oil marketing company. “In a little remote area speaking to women is not easy, as 80 per cent of the time it is the man who picks up the call and asks why we need to speak to the woman. How do you deal with that? We are working out ways,” says a District Nodal Officer. To improve safety, the officers are creating small pamphlets to spread awareness. Initial reports show that the scheme has got off to a successful start. But that has brought another challenge. “Initially people were thinking whether it will take off or not. But now the challenge is whether we can deliver, address issues like corruption, and sustain acceptability and convertibility,” the field officer added.

Innovative marketing will help convert more into using LPG. “Why not use LPG coupons as wedding gifts…For non-BPL families, the cost of a connection is ₹4,500. Flower bouquets alone can be worth that much. Instead of gifting flowers provide connections to poor people,” says Pradhan.