Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY, translation: Prime Minister's Lighting Scheme) was launched by Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi on 1 May 2016 to distribute 50 million LPG connections to women of Below Poverty Line (BPL) families.[1][2][3] A budgetary allocation of ₹80 billion (US$1.1 billion) was made for the scheme. In the first year of its launch, the connections distributed were 22 million against the target of 15 million. As of 23 October 2017, 30 million connections were distributed, 44% of which were given to families belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.[4] The number crossed 58 million by December 2018.[5] In 2018 Union Budget of India, its scope was widened to include 80 million poor households.[6] 21,000 awareness camps were conducted by oil marketing companies (OMC).[5] The scheme led to an increase in LPG consumption by 56% in 2019 as compared to 2014.[7] The highly popular scheme has benefited over 14.6 million BPL families in Uttar Pradesh, 8.8 million in West Bengal, 8.5 million in Bihar, 7.1 million in Madhya Pradesh and 6.3 million in Rajasthan.[8] However, while access to LPG gas stoves and cylinders has increased in the scheme, the use of LPG cylinders remains low.[9] In the Union Budget of 2021-2022, the government announced that 1 crore more connections will be provided under this scheme.

At the 107th Indian Science Congress held in January 2020 in Bengaluru, Narendra Modi declared that technology has helped India "in recognizing the 8 crore [80 million] women who were still using coal or wood for cooking" and also "in understanding how many new distribution centres must be built, via the help of technology".[10]

The National Family Health Surveys demonstrate significant improvement in access to cleaner cooking fuels due to PMUY. Post 2015, the annual increase in access to cleaner fuel increased exponentially. This increased exponentially from 0.8% in rural areas to almost seven-times to 5.6% after 2015.[11]