Understanding the Gender Dimensions of Energy Poverty

Introduction

• Energy supply is crucial to a country’s development, and it is for this reason that energy poverty is a serious concern.
• Lack of access to energy not only deprives a person of basic necessities (heat, light, cooking fuel) but also strips them of options for a holistic development.
• Multilateral organisations like the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the World Bank recognise energy accessibility as a crucial driver of social, economic and human development.
• The Energy Progress Report, 2019states that globally, the electrification rate has reached 89 percent, and in absolute terms, the number of people without access to electricity has reduced from 1 billion to 840 million in 2016.
• However, this is still a huge gap in terms of energy accessibility, especially when it comes to women and that too in rural areas.

Thus, it becomes important to analyse why India’s rural women are disproportionately affected by the lack of access to clean and modern energy.

What is Poverty and ‘Energy Poverty’?

• Poverty is defined as the absence of choices and opportunities required to lead a life of dignity. Among these opportunities is clean and modern energy.
• The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) defines ‘energy poverty’ as the absence of modern cooking fuel, and of electric light to carry out basic activities after sundown.

How far has India reached in attaining access to energy for all?

• India, however, is far from achieving Goal 7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—i.e., “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.”
• The country is home to 780 million people who have no access to modern energy; they rely on traditional sources like biomass for cooking. 

• Although India has made progress in electrifying households through schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojna (PMUY), there are still around 239 million people across India who have no access to electricity.
• The 2011 Census of India found that nearly 87 percent of the rural population remain dependent on solid fuels for cooking, and 580 million people across the country will remain without access to clean cooking fuels in 2030.

Current energy mix of India

• India’s total electricity generation has grown at 5.85 percent per annum since 1990–91.
• However, the energy mix remains biased toward fossil fuels, the availability of efficient peaking power capacity is limited, and the availability of contracted generation capacity for ancillary services and demand response is unstructured.
• Gas-based capacity is limited by the availability of affordable domestic gas at administered prices.
• Moreover, stranded capacity in private projects based on imported gas and LNG remains a problem.
• As of 31 March 2021, Renewable Energy (RE) generation capacity is at 21 percent (94.4 GW) of the total generation capacity.
• However, coal still accounts for 55 percent of the installed generation capacity.

Women, the most affected one by ‘energy poverty’

• As societal and cultural norms endow the primary responsibility of securing food and energy to women, it is them who are most affected by energy poverty.
• Apart from comprising 70 percent of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty, globally, women also have poor access to technology and resources, due to societal constraints.
• This contributes to women’s time poverty, ill health, and increased level of drudgery, leaving them at the losing end of economic and social development.
• Research has found that a woman’s lack of agency in household decision-making is crucial in her family’s failure to transition from traditional fuel to clean cooking fuel.
• The woman’s lack of voice in family decisions, in turn, is caused by her not contributing to household income.
  • Data shows that India’s female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) is only 27 percent, as opposed to the males’ 96 percent.
  • According to research by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD),  around 66 percent of the work done by women in India is unpaid (at 352 minutes per day) as opposed to 12 percent for men (52 min per day).

Why clean energy is essential?

• Exposure to air pollution: A  household which has access to improved cooking technologies is exposed to indoor air pollution measured at 25-50 micrograms per cubic meter per day, as opposed to an exposure of 400-500 micrograms per cubic meter per day for a household that does not use improved cooking fuel and technologies.
• Premature deaths: It is estimated that one of every four (25 percent) of the annual 4.3 million global premature deaths caused by Household Air Pollution (HAP) occur in India.
• Detrimental health conditions: Some 400 million people in India, of whom 90 percent are women, rely on solid biomass and are exposed to detrimental health conditions that manifest as respiratory and pulmonary diseases, or other disorders like blurred vision.

What are the impacts of energy poverty?

The impacts of continued reliance on traditional fuel are multi-faceted, especially for women.

• Slow transition: India’s slow transition to clean and modern energy can partly be attributed to the lack of understanding of the gender dimensions of this energy poverty.
• Health issues: Rural Indian women, on average, spend five to eight hours every day on cooking-related activities; 20 percent of this time is used in securing fuel wood alone. The heavy workload takes a toll on the health of these women who are often, to begin with, undernourished.
• Mortality risk: Poor nutrition, compounded by the workload, altogether increase their susceptibility to anaemia and respiratory diseases, and in turn raising their risk to pre-natal mortality and post-natal complications.
• For India’s women, energy poverty ultimately accrues in time poverty. It holds them back from
  • engaging in income-generating activities
  • availing opportunities to enhance their skills set, getting education
  • adapting to and mitigating the impacts of climate change

Why green economy should be India’s focus area?

• Employment opportunities: According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the green economy, in the next 20 years, will create about 60 million new jobs, a significant proportion of which are in the fields of technology and infrastructure.
  • Investments in Renewable Energy such as solar power, wind, geothermal, and hydro, are estimated to be capable of creating some 40 percent of these green jobs.
• Green jobs for women: In this regard, off-grid energy systems carry a promise in transitioning from traditional fuels to clean and modern energy, as well as with generating green jobs for women. Off-grid solar energy (mini-grid, micro-grid, and stand-alone grid) can reach remote areas in the country where grid electrification cannot.
• Combating carbon emissions: This can set the path to transitioning to renewable energy and combating carbon emissions; they are also more reliable and affordable in the long run. Rural households, in particular, can benefit from off-grid solar energy as they consume less energy.
• Empowering communities: Moreover, off-grid solar energy has the ability to empower communities, especially the women, by generating economic and welfare opportunities.
  • For example: The non-government The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), has a programme called “Light a billion lives” which, along with its implementation of the community project of providing solar lighting system, has helped create income-generating opportunities in the supply chain of clean energy products.
    • The organisation selected women from self-help groups, and trained and mentored them to become local energy entrepreneurs.

What needs to be done?

• Gender-sensitive policies: Gender-neutral policies that aim to provide equal opportunities do not always result in equal outcomes; for this reason, gender-sensitive policies are required.
  • For instance, a policy that recognises the prevalent intra-household gender hierarchy will meet with greater success in ensuring that the household not only invests in solar lamps (which men would more easily agree to) but also solar cookers (from which men might not directly benefit, given that they spend less time in the kitchen.)
• Visualizing women as means to achieve energy security: It is important to view women not only as end-users of the various energy services but also as entrepreneurs, designers, innovators who act as means to achieving energy security.
• Increased awareness: Awareness needs to be backed by the guarantee of consumer rights – for e.g., on supply quality standards, efficiency benchmarks, ease of payment of bills, compensation for failure to adhere to the standards, and other issues that are part of the draft Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2020.

• Women-centric green skill initiative: An important initiative that could be taken by the government is to direct the National Green Skills Council of India to bring into its mandate, a policy that focuses specifically on women. The rollout of green skill initiatives that are women-centric, would instil a sense of security and encourage women to take part in India’s green economy.

• Effective government measures: Government should take proactive measures to
  • implement socially progressive policies and programmes for women
  • pump in more stimulus packages, subsidies and grants into community-based energy projects
  • address gender equality
  • make the otherwise expensive clean energy technology available to the rural poor
• Focus on RE production: When it comes to production of renewable energy (RE) in order to reduce the dependence on coal-based power, significant changes are needed in the capacity mix, with distributed localised generation (gas or RE or hybrid) and contracted capacity—pumped storage or gas based—for ensuring grid stability.

Conclusion

For a country such as India, which is the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, the clean energy sector is crucial as it can help in tackling climate change and reduce the consumption of fossil fuels. And only thing which can hinder the progress is India’s gender-blind energy policies.

Thus, the current focus should be on women-centric policies. There is a need to ensure the participation of women in renewable energy programs at every level including the beneficiary, employment, business, and policymaking to enhance women empowerment and consider the specific needs of women in energy policies in India.