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A report published by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) on Thursday revealed a sharp 24 percentage points drop in the number of rural households using kerosene for lighting, and an equal increase in electrified households since 1999-2000, the date of the last such relevant survey.
Titled 'Energy Sources of Indian Households for Cooking and Lighting', the report traces the usage patterns of primary sources of energy in cooking and lighting by households.
The drastic reduction in kerosene usage significantly affects the public distribution system (PDS) as well as electricity usage patterns. The report says that currently 26.5 per cent of rural homes, and a minuscule 3.2 per cent of urban ones, use kerosene for lighting.
But although the report describes an overwhelming 72.7 per cent of rural homes to be electrified, the interstate variations are equally large and stand in the way of rural electrification being called a success.
While 97.6 per cent of rural households in Andhra Pradesh were electrified - the highest number across states - only 25 per cent of those in Bihar had electricity. Haryana had the largest percentage of homes using other sources of lighting, including other oils and gas.
Bihar also had the least number of electrified urban households at 81.2 per cent, while Maharashtra was the highest at 98.9 per cent, pipping Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
The website of the power ministry stated that 921 projects to electrify 1,20,804 un-electrified villages, intensive electrification of 5,95,883 partially electrified villages had been sanctioned under the flagship Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana.
However, the figures corresponding to energy use in cooking remain dismal, as a drop of only around 8 percentage points are seen for households using firewood and chips for cooking in rural areas as well as urban areas. More than 56 per cent of rural homes in each state - other than Punjab and Haryana - still use it for cooking, and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) usage was still low.
Among states, Tamil Nadu had the highest number of rural houses using LPG for cooking at 37.2 per cent of all surveyed, followed by Kerala and Punjab at 30.8 per cent and 30.5 per cent respectively. Chhattisgarh, where 1.5 per cent of those surveyed used LPG, trailed last with Jharkhand and Odisha following closely at 2.9 per cent and 3.9 per cent respectively. Expectedly, as rural areas lagged behind in adopting LPG for cooking, usage of the same has surged in urban areas with currently around 70 per cent homes using it.
Kerosene usage has also declined severely in India's cities with around five per cent using it for cooking as compared to around 20 per cent using it a decade back.
In urban areas, Haryana leads with 86.5 per cent households using LPG, followed by 77.3 per cent in Andhra Pradesh, and 75.4 per cent in Punjab.
In its ninth edition, the survey was held in slightly more than a select 100,000 households in 17 major states. It is a repeat of the same conducted in July 2009-June 2010. The last survey period having coincided with the advent of the global financial crisis, was not considered optimum.
