This document discusses kerosene usage in India for lighting and cooking. It finds that while kerosene usage for cooking has significantly declined, representing a success story, kerosene usage for lighting still holds sway in many rural areas, representing a failure. The document analyzes census data on kerosene usage for Delhi and finds that some districts still have over 10% of households using kerosene for cooking or lighting, showing more progress is needed. It concludes more promotion of solar home lighting could help capture the market currently occupied by kerosene for lighting.

1. ‘The Kerosene Story‘
Energy Access: tracing the contours of deprivation
Dr. Satish Balram Agnihotri
Part - IV

2. Kerosene
Story of a success and a failure
 Petroleum products claim the third biggest subsidy in our economy (about
Rs 65,000 Cr per annum) next only to food (1.2 lakh Cr) fertilizer (1.0 lakh Cr).
 It is worth contrasting this with the MNRE budget of about Rs 1600 Cr p.a.
 Kerosene – a prominent petroleum product enjoys a subsidy of about Rs
33/ Litre. It is used both as a source of fuel cooking and for lighting.
 Use of kerosene as a fuel for cooking has declined significantly – a success
story that ‘WE’ have failed to project (Government, researchers, Civil Society
alike).
 As a source of lighting it still holds a huge sway – a story of failure that the
same ‘WE’ have failed to highlight adequately.
LET US HAVE A CLOSER LOOK

3. Kerosene as a source of lighting still serves a large rural area with a large
number of districts (marked in red) where more than 2/3rds
households still depend on kerosene as source of lighting.

4. Even in urban areas there are districts where more than 2/3 rd
population depends upon Kerosene as a source of light even though the
number of district where such dependence is less than 10 % has
increased substantially (marked in green)

5. Reaching electricity to households dependant on kerosene may be a
difficult task.
Solar home lighting could be an intermediate solution.
Subsidy of less than Rs 1000 to provide solar home lighting could
significantly reduce kerosene subsidy.
A household could save 30 to 35 Litres or a saved subsidy of about Rs
1000 – 1200 per annum (Source: Field survey done by IIT Bombay
under its million solar lights programme).
Point for Petroleum ministry to ponder over!

6. Ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) also needs to
promote solar home lighting.
The programme must aim at capturing the space occupied by
kerosene as a source of lighting.
But as seen in part I of this analysis solar lighting systems barely
cover 0.3 to 0.5 % of household.
Census data indicates that there are nearly 7.5 crore households
using kerosene for lighting. That is the size of the market!

7. Before going to intra state differences in consumption of
Kerosene as a source for lighting, it will be useful to look at
the ‘success story’ in reducing the use of kerosene as a source
of fuel for coking
Kerosene as source of fuel for cooking
a success story

8. Districts where more than 6% urban households use kerosene as fuel (shown
in red) for cooking has drastically reduced between 2001 and 2011-
a success story that needs to be highlighted and driven further particularly in
the south western districts.

9. Interestingly the rural population lacked similar access to kerosene – were they virtuous
or priced out compared to their urban counterparts? Still, the number of districts where
less than 1% households use kerosene, has increased substantially (shown in green)
- It still is a success story!

10.  How do the intra state patterns of change look like. It is worth
examining this using sub-district data i.e. block, tehsil or the thana as
available in the census.
 Quite clearly each state must be having its own leading and lagging
regions, and the nature of consumption of kerosene as source of fuel for
cooking and for lighting may differ significantly.
It is also quite plausible to expect intra state variations to be sharper
at a more disaggregated level. This will become clear in the analysis
below.
We begin with Delhi – to see how has the NCT has faired

11. NCT has seen drastic reduction in use of kerosene for lighting which is
how it should be – except in the cantonment sub district where 3.8% HH still
use it - a level same as that in 2001 census. This need to be brought down.
Does it represent a case of diversion of Kerosene? This needs to be checked.

12. NCT has had a moderate success in reducing use of kerosene as fuel for cooking
yet there are still over 1.75 lakh households using it. Even though the reduction
from 2001 levels is impressive, in sub districts like Chanakyapuri , cantonment or
model town more than 9% households still use kerosene as the main source (Census
2011)! This needs to be addressed on a priority .

13. Table below gives the levels of kerosene consumption in 2001 and 2011
to make the comparison clear
Area Name Total number of households
Type of Fuel used for Cooking
Fire-wood Crop residue Cowdung cake
Coal,Lignite,Ch
arcoal
Kerosene LPG/PNG Electricity Biogas Any other No cooking
6 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
STATE - NCT OF DELHI 33,40,538 1,12,291 9,094 19,487 4,476 1,75,443 30,03,996 1,335 3,017 1,866 9,533
District - North West 7,30,034 35,080 2,628 5,246 1,040 57,234 6,25,662 350 532 591 1,671
Sub-District - Narela 1,60,861 14,613 1,222 2,466 352 14,096 1,27,388 21 99 252 352
Sub-District - Saraswati Vihar 4,48,310 15,149 1,218 1,891 558 28,275 3,99,291 284 382 321 941
Sub-District - Model Town 1,20,863 5,318 188 889 130 14,863 98,983 45 51 18 378
District - North 1,75,890 3,827 748 866 93 8,063 1,61,067 47 147 46 986
Sub-District - Civil Lines 1,37,681 3,222 656 679 74 5,797 1,26,389 31 135 33 665
Sub-District - Sadar Bazar 24,232 445 84 186 11 1,700 21,514 11 5 7 269
Sub-District - Kotwali 13,977 160 8 1 8 566 13,164 5 7 6 52
District - North East 3,95,060 8,212 803 4,202 581 22,667 3,56,769 67 407 409 943
Sub-District - Seelam Pur 2,36,475 4,278 506 2,874 262 10,161 2,17,128 29 356 353 528
Sub-District - Shahdara 56,649 670 90 163 98 3,628 51,801 21 8 17 153
Sub-District - Seema Puri 1,01,936 3,264 207 1,165 221 8,878 87,840 17 43 39 262
District - East 3,54,385 7,877 562 1,435 119 15,738 3,27,253 74 232 89 1,006
Sub-District - Gandhi Nagar 81,164 2,330 218 106 19 3,200 74,994 38 14 30 215
Sub-District - Vivek Vihar 48,911 839 45 107 25 3,925 43,857 2 18 5 88
Sub-District - Preet Vihar 2,24,310 4,708 299 1,222 75 8,613 2,08,402 34 200 54 703
District - New Delhi 30,385 1,226 54 27 18 2,042 26,681 112 12 10 203
Sub-District - Connaught Place 6,331 112 17 12 7 315 5,828 11 3 1 25
Sub-District - Chanakya Puri 13,466 879 21 13 - 1,261 11,029 96 7 8 152
Sub-District - Parliament Street 10,588 235 16 2 11 466 9,824 5 2 1 26
District - Central 1,14,587 2,704 175 170 97 8,753 1,01,826 187 47 77 551
Sub-District - Darya Ganj 50,254 1,610 56 56 71 5,910 42,134 146 11 51 209
Sub-District - Pahar Ganj 35,246 926 84 112 23 2,418 31,388 37 26 16 216
Sub-District - Karol Bagh 29,087 168 35 2 3 425 28,304 4 10 10 126
District - West 5,23,703 16,239 889 1,616 1,272 25,770 4,75,985 203 385 245 1,099
Sub-District - Patel Nagar 2,63,957 7,328 314 700 545 10,070 2,43,922 83 270 192 533
Sub-District - Rajouri Garden 1,01,148 2,334 97 44 97 8,867 89,350 27 38 18 276
Sub-District - Punjabi Bagh 1,58,598 6,577 478 872 630 6,833 1,42,713 93 77 35 290
District - South West 4,62,772 17,881 1,882 3,447 296 13,714 4,23,855 139 218 220 1,120
Sub-District - Najafgarh 2,70,344 8,910 1,393 2,827 119 2,429 2,53,873 80 112 169 432
Sub-District - Delhi Cantonment 49,693 2,404 119 48 38 6,161 40,668 22 15 20 198
Sub-District - Vasant Vihar 1,42,735 6,567 370 572 139 5,124 1,29,314 37 91 31 490
District - South 5,53,722 19,245 1,353 2,478 960 21,462 5,04,898 156 1,037 179 1,954
Sub-District - Hauz Khas 2,46,911 9,478 547 1,443 138 4,408 2,29,864 27 234 79 693
Sub-District - Defence Colony 1,32,210 3,092 114 296 115 6,573 1,20,804 53 573 45 545
Sub-District - Kalkaji 1,74,601 6,675 692 739 707 10,481 1,54,230 76 230 55 716

14. NCT of Delhi still has over 1.2 lakh households using firewood is used as fuel for cooking.
Narela reporting the highest; more than 9% of households followed by Chanakyapuri and
Cantonment sub-districts. This is puzzling and these fuel consumption patterns need
closer scrutiny. At least we should popularize modern blue flame wood burning cook-
stoves there!

15. Luckily, use of crop residue and cow dung cakes in the NCT in 2011 is
quite insignificant.
Fire – wood, crop residue, cow-dung cake, coal, and even kerosene can
be clubbed together into less clean fuels where as use of LPG – a clean
fuel (and bio-gas) is an indicator of progress in a region.
It is instructive to see, therefore, the increase in the usage of LPG in
Delhi between 2001 and 2011.
We see a substantial increase in use of LPG. However, Cantonment,
Chanakya Puri, Model town and Narela continue to show relatively
lower use of LPG (<85%)

16. From the NCT it is time to move to its neighbours – the other northern
states. We begin with the two prosperous states Punjab and Haryana.