Project: Smokeless villages

Indoor air pollution claims lives of more than 1.5 million people worldwide - About 0.5 million of these deaths occur in India...WHO

Introduction

Cooking is an essential activity carried out by women in every household. In most poor, rural households, this is done on conventional stoves that require large amounts of firewood, takes a long time to cook and releases a lot of smoke which is injurious to the health of the family. In order to overcome these deficiencies, TIDE proposes to create smokeless villages and seeks funding support for the same. It proposes to install fuel efficient smokeless stoves in all households in select villages where the entire community is receptive to the initiative. 

About the stove

The improved stove that would be installed would be the Sarala stove which is a two pan stove with a single fuel feeding port. It was developed at ASTRA (now Center for Sustainable Technologies, IISc) as a consequence to the user response to its earlier version, the ASTRA stove. As its name suggests, the Sarala stove is a simple stove: simple to build, maintain and user. It uses local materials, mud bricks etc, a cast iron grate and a chimney. It should be affordable by large sections of rural population but there are always more pressing demands on their limited resources. Consequently women tend to put off or delay adoption often at the cost of their health. 

Mechanism for implementation of smokeless villages 

TIDE has identified select villages in the Tiptur / Gubbi region of Tumkur district of Karnataka for this initiative. Discussions with the gram panchayats of these villages have already begun. As soon as a donor is found for the scheme, the field staff of TIDE would hold village level meetings to put into motion the creation of smokeless villages. The cost of the stove is expected to be Rs 350 (about US$ 8.75) and the household would make an in-kind contribution of about Rs. 50/stove.  

As a part of its energy linked livelihood projects for women, TIDE has trained several women in the construction of smokeless stoves. 

These women construct stoves for a fee and augment their incomes through stove construction especially in the lean agricultural season. These trained women stove builders would be the change agents  for the creation of smokeless villages. They would be given contracts for the construction and maintenance of stoves in a particular village. 

Project objectives

To reduce women's drudgery in firewood collection and improve health through the construction of fuel efficient smokeless stoves in select villages

To create income generation opportunities for rural women trained in household stove construction

Funds required

Approximately Rs 30,000 (US$ 750) per village of 100 households. But there would be smaller and larger villages and the cost is only indicative

The budget:

Download the project brochure here

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