SAVING WOMEN’S TIME and ENERGY: An Initiative in Drudgery Reduction and Empowerment of Hill women.

CURRENT INITIATIVE:

Introduction of energy saving and drudgery reducing devices namely Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), Pressure Cooker and Hamam (Water heating device) were attempted on the premise that it liberates women and girl children from time and humongous effort spent of fuelwood collection, thereby, throwing open opportunities to pursue education, generate additional income at HH and/or community level and engage more actively in the social fabric of the community and local governance institutions like the Panchayats (village councils). Out of the 940 (as of January 2007) women members in – Women’s Saving and Credit Groups (WSCGs), over 383 members have LPG connections, 207 Pressure Cooker and 362 have been distributed Hamams.

CRITERIA FOR DISTRIBUTION:

The criteria adopted for selecting women members to be eligible to get a LPG connection and Hamam through Jagriti include

(i) Preference to women members belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC) groups (usually the poorest people),

(ii) the group having been in existence for at least 5 months and

(iii) the member having completed five months regular saving within that group. Members of the women’s savings and credit group are identified on basis of location specific poverty indicators including quantitative and qualitative aspects.

COSTING SHARING BY WOMEN MEMBERS:

Member's contribution was considered crucial to build in their stake and to ensure usage of devices. For LPG connection, the members contributed 60 per cent of the cost and the remaining amount was covered through a NORAD assisted project. For hamams, 75 per cent of the cost is borne by women members and the remainder by Jagriti from its drudgery reducing technology fund.

BACKGROUND OF THE AREA:

The rain-fed, agro-pastoral economy of Lag and Gadsa valleys, typical of many mountain regions, exacts much hard work but yields diminishing returns, like having to run faster to stay at the same place.

The ordinary woman’s workday here stretches between 16 and 18 hours. An analysis (carried out by Jagriti in Lag valley) of the activity breakup and hours spent on each activity shows that time spent on cooking, utensil washing and fuelwood gathering adds upto a daily total of 6 to 7 hours. This is followed by care and work related to domestic livestock (including grass/ fodder cutting and its carriage for stall fed animals) that takes another 3 to 4 hours every day. Thus about 50 to 60 % of the average woman’s workday goes on a cluster of just two interconnected household chores. Often in carrying out both these unavoidable, daily drudgeries the help of the girl children is taken especially during sowing/ harvesting seasons or other peak work times during festivals, fairs, marriages etc.

According to the preliminary survey conducted by Jagriti, in a year an average household roughly uses 15-17 quintals (’00 kg) of fuelwood with bulk of it in winter. Besides cooking, fuelwood is used for heating of room, water for bathing and for washing. The burden of gathering fuelwood falls squarely on women and girls of the household. Because their effort and time in this activity is not valued, the “free” collection of fuelwood becomes a barrier to adoption of cleaner and more energy efficient devices.

STRATEGY

The strategy for distribution of energy saving devices has been based on initial discussion with women members and their feed back on affordability and scope for usage of the proposed devices.

In order to reduce the cost of the each device, a bulk orders list (based on payments received by the WSCG members) was prepared and then prices negotiated with wholesale dealers. This brought down not only the cost per device compared to the market rate but also reduced the distribution cost.

The LPG programme was started in November 02 in 12 Panchayats of Lag Valley subsequent to promotional meetings highlighting the time, drudgery and convenience aspect and the subsidy element of the programme. Since an upfront payment of Rs 996 was to be made, women were encouraged to access their group savings account to either partly or wholly cover their contribution. Some members opting for LPG had no pressure cooker so it was felt that the LPG programme should be combined with Pressure Cooker distribution. To promote usage of pressure cookers, some modification was made in the contribution amount by providing extra subsidy to the Scheduled Caste as against the other general category members i.e SC members were to contribute Rs 540, whereas the Other castes (OC) were to cough up Rs 630 per cooker.

Similarly for the hamam programme commencing September 05, members were to contribute Rs 450 either in easy installment or pay the whole amount upfront.

DISTRIBUTION STATUS:

* As on January 2007

SC -Scheduled Caste
OC- Other Caste
MC- Mixed group 

IMPACTS

Reduced fuelwood consumption: A quick assessment study suggests that in a household of 6 members, on an average 10-12 kg of fuelwood is saved per day by cooking on LPG. These estimates are relevant for summer which in the region extends to 4-5 months in a year. Monthly refill status indicates that on an average 3 cylinders are used with each lasting for one and half month. A rough calculation suggests that with usage of LPG per household for a year about 1.4 tons fuelwood is saved.

Hot water is required through out the year with double the demand during winter. Average hot water requirement per day per household in winter months i.e for six months is 50-60 liters. Hot water in winter is not only required for bathing but also for washing utensils, clothes and as drinking water for livestock. A comparative study of fuelwood consumption in traditional chullah as against Hamam suggests that to heat 20 litrs of water in a traditional chullah takes roughly 10 -12 kilo of hard wood and time taken is 35-40 minutes whereas, in Hamam it takes 2 kilo of household litter, crop residue or small twigs to heat 20 litres of water in 15-20 minutes. So, with use of hamam for approximately 130 days in year, a household saves 1.5 tons of fuelwood.

Time saved: In terms of time saved two important impacts are clear. Time saved in cooking and in fuelwood collection is very significant and has important implications for empowerment of women by greatly reducing their drudgery and toil and “freeing” them to pursue other income enhancement and/or socially rewarding pursuits.

Fuelwood collection for most women involved a daily, backbreaking grind varying between 2 and 6 hours (depending on the distance of the forest), first thing in the morning. In all cases (who bought LPG) interviewed, the time spent was down to 1 to 4 trips (varying 2-6 hours) per week. In 9 cases, the collection frequency was down to 1 to 4 trips per month.

Better health: According to a study “LPG: A key to empowerment of hill women” supported by NORAD, women mentioned positive health impacts in terms of less coughing, eyes not hurting/ watering and less respiratory problems. Interviewed women also mentioned that LPG use leads to more cleanliness, less sweating in summer and clothes not getting as dirty as before. There is less drudgery involved in washing utensils.

Active participation of men and children in household chores: Some of women members indicated that men and children are more willing to share cooking responsibilities. Often, when women are away for some work, men and children prepare food themselves whereas, earlier women had to prepare it before leaving the house.
Since hamam is easily portable and is placed outside the house in an open area, most of women members indicated that children and other elders have now taken up the charge of bringing water and heating it in the Hamam. Earlier since the water was heated on a traditional chullah, the responsibility automatically fell on women. The children are now more willing to take bath and wash their own clothes. In one village they carry the hamam to the stream, use twigs and fallen pine needles to heat the water and then wash clothes / bathe there.

Increased scope for engaging in economic activities: There has been noticeable increase in women’s participation in daily waged work especially during summer when there is heightened agriculture activity. The gas refill status of some of the poorer SC groups clearly supports this observation in the field. It was interesting to note that wherever women have been able to engage in any economic activity their LPG refill rate is much higher as most paid for refills from their own earning and the case is reverse for members who are unable to work outside. This also indicates that in majority of cases men were reluctant to pay for gas refill even when they saw the benefit of it.

Improved social status: It is well known that poor households are rarely able to access subsidy/incentive based schemes but under the drudgery reducing technology programme the effort reversed the trend. Many women members frankly admitted that they opted for energy saving devices not only because of the benefits of using these devices but also to show off to their neighbors.

Cases where family members of some of the women were persuaded by better off household to get devices in their name are not unheard off. Majority of women feel this visible benefit of being a women savings and credit group member has improved their status in the family and among other non member women.

Increased awareness and usage among non members: When LPG connections were distributed to poorer, SC women, several upper caste women, possibly for reasons of keeping up or rather not being left behind (the Joneses!), also procured LPG directly from the market, thus boosting the overall LPG usage in the valley.

Environmental Impact: Trees and forests which have been heavily lopped for fuel wood over the years will slowly begin to get some respite. This is truer for forests which are further off from habitations. An important aspect of lesser demand on the trees is linked to the use of wood from the Green oak which is a very slow growing species and crucial as green fodder in winter. Further, the use of hamam encourages burning of agricultural waste, twigs and other waste materials. This further reduces the demand on oak wood for fuel in turn giving respite to the oak forests

For more information on the energy saving and drudgery reducing initiative, please contact us.

Wision - Sustainable Energy for Poverty Reduction Brochure