About The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana:-
Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana is a government scheme which was launched by the Prime Minister of our country keeping women in mind who are belonging from the economically weaker section of the society or we can say from below poverty line. This scheme was launched on 1st May 2016 by respected prime minister of the country, Narendra Modi. In 2021, it’s name got a little change with the same purpose which is Ujjwala Yojana 2.0. The budget of 80 billion rupees was separated for this scheme implementation on ground level. This scheme was launched by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas with people like Dharmendra Pradhan who played major roles.
Aims and Objectives of this scheme:- You might be curious to know about what are the aims and objectives of this scheme to get launched and implemented in all parts of the country. Here are below written some of the aims and objectives of the scheme Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana. These are:-
- This scheme aimed to empower women.
- To provide cooking fuel to women in rural India.
- To prevent health issues in rural people as they are into using fossil fuels.
Marketing of the scheme:- The ministry launched this scheme with a slogan of “swatch India, behtar Jeewan”. This scheme aimed to provide cost effective LPG connections to the families and their women who are below line of poverty. This scheme also focusses on health of people and promote a smoke free environment.
Benefits of the scheme:-
- This scheme focused on making the women of rural area empowered and helped them in preventing many of the respiratory problems and aimed at providing them a clean burning fuel. This helped women in doing their work more conveniently without hurting their physical health.
- Women often before this scheme implementation use to go to far places to collect woods and sometimes get trapped with several hazards and harrasmement sometimes. When LPG connections facility get into their house this problem was reduced.
- Improved the people of rural india quality of living. This scheme helped the women to not get several health problems like headaches, nausea and skin or respiratory system disease and made their word more convenient with good LPG connection and reduced the air pollution to some degree.
- Environmental advantage as this stopped the burning of woods and this had a great and positive impact on the environment and forest.
- When this LPG connection will be given to women it will be in name of women and this will help them in providing with a subsidy too in their own account. This also saves women time and they can do some other works during those times.
Statistics and performance:-
In past 9 years, India have achieved a growth in the LPG consumers. The consumers have been increased from 14.52 crores to 31.36 crores from April 2014 to march 2023. LPG coverage in 2016 was 62% to 2022 was 104.1%. The total number of connections on January 30, 2023, is 9.58 crores.
According to a report of World Health Organization, of 2018, it was made that this Ujjawala Yojana had provided 37 million women who were living below the poverty line with free LPG connections which helped them to get a clean source.
Current Status:-
Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana was then replaced by Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana 2.0 with a same kind of objective to provide LPG connection to many more household. The target of the scheme was to the rural areas who are economically disadvantageous.
These people used to use the harmful cooking methods which is injurious to their own health and also to the environment equally. So it was important to upgrade them and giving them the advantage of using new methods of cooking.
Under this 2.0 version of Ujjwala Yojana, the people who are eligible for taking benefit of this scheme will be able to get the financial help so that they can get LPG connection in their houses also a gas stove and a cylinder. This scheme is all about prioritizing women who are from Below Poverty Line and help their families. This is also a case that the traditional outdated methods of cooking not only were hectic and tiring but also were unhealthy for the women who is cooking and her family members who were breathing the same air. This increased the air pollution inside the home too, and there was always a risk of respiratory problems and skin related issues in the family members. The most vulnerable were the old aged and children and if the women of the house is pregnant that used to make her way more challenging. Air pollution in house can increase which will reduce the quality of air people are breathing.
Ujjawala scheme had the same objectives with a little changes and aims to expand the reach of clean cooking fuel to remote and difficult to reach areas.
Way forward:-
Here are some methods of making this scheme more effective:-
- Fixing an appropriate eligible criteria so that the scheme benefits will be taken by those who really deserve them not those who are in good financial conditions and can afford the cost of LPG connection. Prioritizing the economic condition is very important to select an appropriate home.
- As the people who will get this benefit don’t know a lot about using LPG connection, they should be made aware about this to ensure their safety. They can be educated by some good and interesting methods.
- Beneficiaries need to have all the necessary documents to get the benefits of the scheme. So it’s important to provide them with necessary documents as some of them don’t have it.
- Women who will get benefit of this scheme should be explained the advantage of having a LPG connection so that the change in their working space can be acceptable to them and should be taught how this will save their time after this.