Hope versus hype

The government must make some course corrections before scaling up the PMUY beneficiary target

The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) has made a splash over the last two years. No citizen can drive into over 56,000 PSU petrol pumps without seeing a large hoarding of the Prime Minister alongside an LPG cylinder and a woman’s photograph. This is saturation advertising.

The PMUY has its genesis in research into the disease burden on women and children who rely on biomass and firewood for cooking, especially in rural areas. This burden is estimated to be equivalent to being in a room where 300 cigarettes per hour are being smoked. The resultant burden of chest and lung