Ujjwala yojana: Ensuring the well-being of women-declassifying its theory and practice

Abstract

In India, there are about 10 Crore households that are still deprived of LPG as cooking fuel and have to rely on firewood, coal, dungcakes, etc. as the primary source of cooking with the most immediate sufferers as women who are largely in charge of cooking food. To tackle this issue with the basic aim to empower the rural women, Ujjwala Yojna was launched by the BJP government in 2016. Many further developments continued to happen afterwards, however, despite the arduous work by the government under this scheme, many challenges still needed to be tackled especially considering the empowerment of women. Keeping this background in mind, this study aims to assess the Yojna on ground with a major focus on the condition of women. Our main goal is to appraise the condition of women after the implementation of Ujjwala Yojana and to find out to what extent women have benefited from this Yojana.To conduct detailed research in this regard, we have tried to read the Yojna deeply and mention what was on paper given under this Yojna. Further, we have tried to analyse where the Yojna was truly successful on ground and where it lagged. Rather than tracking the whole journey, we have tried to analyse the recent challenges faced by rural women under this Yojna for which a Survey was also done by us in the rural area of Kalyanpuri.