Understanding Household, Network, and Organizational Drivers of Adoption, Sustained Use, and Maintenance of Clean Cooking Fuels in Rural India

摘要

To reduce household air pollution (HAP) the emphasis is now on transitioning households and communities to cleaner Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) based cooking systems. The objective of our case-control study is to examine household, network, and organizational drivers that influence adoption and sustained use of LPG in Below Poverty Line (BPL) households in rural India. Our aims are: 1) understand how rural LPG adopters vary from other rural households on factors of affordability, accessibility, and awareness (3As) of LPG; 2) evaluate the relative influence of gender-based personal networks on LPG adoption in these rural households; and 3) determine how the 3As affect sustained use of LPG in adopter households. Our findings come from a multistage random sample in 35 habitations of rural Andhra Pradesh, India. Data for Aim 1 were collected through a set of semi-structured questionnaires administered to 510 households. For Aim 2 we used a standardized personal gender based network survey administered to 200 households. We are currently collecting data for Aim 3 by deploying stove use monitoring technologies to record cookstoves' usage patterns in real time for 65 households for one year. We will present our results for aim 1 and aim 2 from this ongoing study. Our findings show that 3As concurrently impact the adoption of LPG in poor rural households. Specifically, our results indicate the following factors are salient and have a positive effect on LPG adoption in rural India: 1) income of women; 2) income of households; 3) proximity to LPG distribution centers; 4) proximity to tarmac roads; 5) remoteness to freely available biomass from forests; and 6) awareness campaigns. Our findings also reveal the importance of structure and composition of personal gender-based networks in the uptake of LPG. Lessons from this study are timely, relevant, and of interest to Government of India's renewed emphasis on expanding LPG distribution to the poor in rural India.