Does improved cooking fuel empower women? Evidence from India

YuJung Julia Lee, Zakir Husain and Mousumi Dutta

Sustainable Development, 2024, vol. 32, issue 1, 574-587

Abstract: Reliance on biomass fuel remains high in many developing countries, like India. Shifting to clean fuel has widely recognized benefits for women in saving time, improving health, and creating a better environment. Other benefits to women in the form of increasing empowerment are a relatively under‐researched area. Using data from the nationally representative National Family Health Survey (2019–21) in India, this study uses endogenous treatment effect models to explore the causal effect of shifting to clean fuel on awareness, work, mobility, decision‐making and financial autonomy. Analysis reveals significant gains in all dimensions, particularly in women's mobility and decision‐making. The gains are relatively higher among less educated women, those from poor households, and those belonging to socially advantaged groups. Focusing on gains to empowerment will motivate women to adopt clean fuel and enable a holistic transformation of society through the simultaneous attainment of several Sustainable Development Goals.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2695

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:32:y:2024:i:1:p:574-587

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainable Development is currently edited by Richard Welford

More articles in Sustainable Development from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().