1.
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY
OF ENERGY SECTOR
DYNAMICS
GOVIND KELKAR
MSSRF, INDIA

2.
Background
 Surge of reflections on the discriminatory social norms that influence structures
and processes of political and economic development
 Undervaluing women’s work in production and social reproduction and denial of
land, property and new technology rights to women
 Aspirational policyl goals: Three objectives seen:
 Spread of inclusive energy services
 Improve energy efficiency
 Expand clean energy access, including the household and women, for their dignity and
empowerment

3.
Bringing Gender into Political Economy
Analysis
 Conventional analyses of energy and political economy do not capture gender
relations of power in domestic, social, political and economic spheres.
 Counter-posed to these is women’s agency or agential power- the power to make
decisions and act upon them
 However, women’s decision-making power too, in most cases, is infused with existing
social norms that marginalize women and ignores their strategic needs
 Gender analysis has a long-standing concern with understanding agency, since the mid
1980s with critique of structural adjustment policies (DAWN; Sen)
 Our analysis tries to capture how gender determines or influences the political and
economic relationships in the structures of power

4.
Addressing Structure and Agency
 We attempt to combine both the structural and agential elements in the spheres of
energy at macro, meso and micro levels
 Politics in gendering of political economy of changing fuel access is in women’s
increased participation in production activities, often mediated by women’s
organizations
 This has its attendant effects on women’s greater control over income and assets,
which in turn advances women’s agency in their choice of energy use
 Our analysis links social reproduction (domestic cooking, care and subsistence) with
production activities
 The overall research objective is to understand the factors that constrain or facilitate
women’s agency in the use of energy in social reproduction and production spheres,
leading to gender sensitivity in energy policies and women’s empowerment in energy
policies and practices

5.
Gender in Political Economy of Energy

6.
Conceptualizing Women’s Economic
Empowerment
 Recent UN definition:
Women's economic empowerment is about unlocking the potential of women to
earn more, gain better jobs and achieve financial independence. It's about economic
equality and breaking down barriers that hold women back from discriminatory laws to
an unfair share of unpaid home and family care. It's a game-changer for development:
because when more women get the chance to work, it makes their families, communities
& countries wealthier.
 Five domains of empowerment: Production; Resources; Income; Leadership; Time
 We see women’s economic empowerment as a mix of autonomy and dignity
(associated with choice, mobility and freedom from violence); non-discrimination in
work; re-arrangement and counting of household work and unpaid care; and women’s
individualized rights to ownership and control of productive assets and new technology.
These, in turn, provide women with the capability to make decisions both within the
home and outside in governance bodies and labour market.

7.
Persistence of Fuelwood Use: Policy and
Practice
 NSSO 2011-2012 (68th Round) says:
 Fuelwood is the primary cooking fuel 67.3% of rural households in India and 14% in urban
households
 87% in ST households and 70% in SC households
 Compared to industry, agriculture (where predominantly women work) has faced neglect in
energy access; 17.3% of the total consumption of electricity in India in agriculture and 46.7%
for industrial use
 Likewise in 2010, 78% of households in Nepal relied on traditional biomass for cooking
 A welcome shift in policy attention towards domestic and commercial agriculture e.g.
Pradhan Mantri Ujjawal Yojana aims at giving 50 million subsidized LPG connections in
the name of women to Below Poverty Level households within three years

8.
Policy Perspectives
 Policy considers that household income represents the main influencing factor on
the choice of energy carrier
 Supply side, or technocratic approach: giving free LPG to women in remote areas
will solve the problem
 The problem is that both at the national and state levels, energy policies and
schemes are largely framed and implemented as ‘gender neutral’, gender-
differential needs are not recognized
 It is only in September, 2015 that the Government of India recognized the need to
reduce rural women’s use of fuelwood from the existing 67% to %% by 2030.

9.
Field Findings: At the threshold of change
for clean energy
 Knowledge received from television, this knowledge also helps men to support women’s demands
 Peer group pressure, also seen felt by men
 Knowledge about health concerns, particularly of children
 Drudgery involved in collecting fuel and its use, cleaning of cooking vessels. Interestingly, these were also
recognized by men
 Flexibility in use, in cooking times, support from men for the use of LPG as it would provide them with “hot food,
when needed” without delay
 Security from wild animals and insect bites while collecting fuelwood from forest
 Mosquito bites: women were more exposed because they go to forests for the collection of fuelwood
 Status pressure: both women and men did not like to be accused of being “forest thieves” by officials
 Reduction in availability of fuelwood; cooking with fuelwood was seen as 3 times more expensive than LPG

10.
Field Findings: At the threshold of change
for clean energy
 Men’s migration and exposure to urban way of life in cooking with LPG
 Both women and men have aspirations to have LPG as a symbol of status production,
preferred not be seen as poor
 Availability of regular cash income from non-farm work, either in the village or outside
 Education among women, particularly younger women, who demand to cook with LPG
 Is there a change in gender relations?
 LPG as the last of the priorities (electricity connection; TV; education of children; motorbike
for men; LPG)
 Increased agricultural work of women (men too acknowledged this increase)
 Men demand “hot meal in time, cooked by women”

11.
Field Findings: Why women still do not
have LPG on a large scale?
 Concern for safety, more so in the thatched roof houses and concern of children
meddling with the LPG cylinder/stove regulators
 Older women did not feel confident in cooking with new technology like LPG
 Limited awareness about the scheme and the LPG technology
 Financial concern about large down payment (Rs. 6,000)

12.
Dynamics of Change in Women’s Energy
Use
 The increased value of women’s time brought about by:
 Out-migration of men
 Women’s increased participation in production and commercial activities
 Infrastructural connectedness
 Process facilitated by women’s groups
 Technological change in the shape of cheap diesel engines, promoting mechanization of agriculture
 New concerns about women’s and children’s health due to household air pollution
 National responses to international concerns about climate change and a clean environment
 ICTs leading to awareness of the wider world from radio and television
 Low cost and efficient appliances for lighting and the subsequent necessity to have access to very small
amounts of electricity
 Increased literacy of women and girls
 Concern for human rights of marginalised peoples

13.
Thank you
Questions and Comments