In order to provide environment friendly clean cooking fuel to women especially in rural areas to get rid of health hazards faced by them due to use of traditional fuel, Pradhan MantriUjjwalaYojana was launched on 1st May, 2016 by Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi from Balia in Uttar Pradesh.

During FY 2020-21 whole world was hit by Covid and for supporting the PMUY households which are poorest of the poor people Government announced to provide 3 free refills to each PMUY households under PMGKP. During the running of the scheme, a total of 14.17 Cr refills were given free of cost to the PMUY beneficiaries.

Based on the data from pre-covid year that is FY 2019-20, there is growth in the per capita consumption which has increased from 3.01 to 3.71 in FY 2022-23.

PMUY households are poorest of the poor households. UjjwalaYojna (PMUY) was launched in May 2016 to improve access to LPG, a predominant clean cooking fuel for poor households. Aim of the scheme is to provide a helping hand to poor families in taking their first move and creating a behavioral change towards clean cooking.

Creating a behavioral change in a democratic society like India takes a lot of time and continuous efforts. While PMUY has successfully helped millions of poor households in their first step towards a healthy pollution free life by providing them a free LPG connection, Oil Marketing Companies under MoP&NG are continuing their efforts towards behavioral change through initiatives like LPG Panchayat and public outreach. 

88% of poor PMUY households have taken the refills during 2022-23.PMUY beneficiaries who have been taking refills has been going up from 3 Crore in 2017-18 to 6 Cr in 2018-19, 6.5 Cr in 2019-20. 8 Cr in 2020-21, 8.05 Cr in 2021-22 and 8.41 Cr in 2022-23.

Further the resounding achievement of growth of 24 % in per capita consumption of PMUY consumers over last five years is a testimony to the goodwill the scheme has brought.

Total refills taken by PMUY beneficiaries has gone up from 16 Cr in 2018-19 to 35 Cr in 2022-23, vindicating a steady and consistent growth in a permanent shift of PMUY families from unclean kitchens to a bright future.

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RKJ

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