Title: UTILIZATION OF PRADHAN MANTRI UJJWALA YOJANA BY RURAL WOMEN

Authors: Simple Jain and Neeta Khandelwal

Publisher: The President, Society of Extension Education Gujarat

Keywords: utilization, rural women, gas stove, refilling, pradhan mantri ujjwala yojana.

Volume: 40

Issue: 1

Year: December 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56572/gjoee.2025.40.1.0027

Abstract: The Indian government launched the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY or Ujjwala Scheme) in May, 2016 to reduce the toil of the Indian rural women who cook on firewood and provide low-emission fuel to households. This study assessed the utilization of services of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana by rural women and hurdles confronted by them in utilization of the scheme. This research was carried out in two districts namely Banaskantha and Patan of North Gujarat. Total of four blocks and 16 villages were selected randomly for the study. Twenty beneficiaries of each village were chosen randomly. Thus the total sample was 320 beneficiary rural women. Multistage random sampling method was used for sample selection. Interview technique was used for data collection. Data was analysed by using frequency, percentage. The finding revealed that the utilization of Ujjwala gas stove was low (48.44%) to medium (44.38%). Very few respondents were in high utilization category (7.19%). The main constraints for less utilization was the high refilling cost, less income, making food on normal chulla is cheaper and regular maintenance of equipment (gas stove, regulator) due to its poor quality. Findings further revealed that the refilling cost and income, easy accessibility to conventional fuels had significant negative correlation with the utilization of services of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana. Thus there need to implement proper strategies for more utilization of Ujjwala gas.