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Gender Energy and Human Freedom in Nepal

Rural energy in general and biomass in particular, has a great impact on peoples wellbeing especially on the life qualities of ruralwomen in Nepal as they are directly involved in production and management of household energy.. For instance, increased use of

biomass limits the production and reproduction capacities of women, which, in turn, restricts their capabilities to access better energy services as well as other socio-economic opportunities. The challenges are then to identify alternative options that help toaddress both energy poverty as well as human poverty so as to increase the human capabilities (especially of women) and their freedom for the well being of rural households.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Key words: energy, poverty, capabilities and freedom

1. Background

Energy is one of the central aspects of human life as it affects agricultural productivity,

environmental sustainability, health care, and job creation. More than a need, energy per se is

absolutely essential to deliver adequate living conditions, food, water, health care, education,

shelter and employment (Najam and Cleveland, 2003). For instance, energy availability is a key

determinant of how food is grown and cooked, the health impacts of how food is cooked or how

living spaces are heated, the time required to procure household energy, and so on. It especially

influences the poor peoples lives as they spend much of their income in obtaining energy for

basic needs and also much of their time in energy related activities (UNDP, 1997).

In Nepal, 86 percent of the energy comes through biomass (CRT, 2005), which has a greater impact on the countrys socio-cultural, economic and environmental aspects. Fuelwood

collection takes a considerable amount of time (estimates range from two to twenty hours a

week) and distances covered over difficult terrain can be substantial. For example in Nepal

women can walk over 20 km per journey in search of wood (Mahat, 2004). Women also suffer

back problems from carrying heavy wood loads (40 kg are not usual) on their head as well as the

less recognized threats of rape and beatings (Cecelski 2000, UNDP, 1997). In many cases,

uterine prolapsed among rural women in Nepal is attributed to carrying heavy firewood and

similarly women often face a risk of miscarriages with such heavy workload (Earth and Staphit,

2002; Haile, 1991; UNDP, 1997). A study in Nepal indicated that highest percentage of infant

mortality is associated with ARI, which is mainly caused by indoor air pollution (Pandey, 2003).

Girl children are kept out of school to assist in wood collection (Clancy, 2000). Water collection

for the household has similar impacts. This has a large negative impact on rural poverty in

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general, and human poverty in particular affecting well being of rural households (Ramani,

2004).

2. Relationship between Energy Poverty and Human Freedom

It is worth relating energy with poverty deprivations as energy is

considered as one of the basic human needs that have a crucial role in

improving peoples wellbeing (GNESD, 2007). At the most basic level, energy

is needed for cooking food, and space heating (World Bank, 2000). For the

worlds poor, the only source of energy that is generally available and

affordable is traditional biomass, including fuel wood, crop residues, and

animal wastes (REN 21, 2005). Using biomass as fuel contributes to

multiple deprivations of poverty such as economic, socio-cultural and

ecological. Particularly, the social and cultural deprivations (such as equity,

inequalities) have a major influence on human capabilities especially of

women limiting their production and reproduction capacities (e.g no time and

labour for production and social activities, no access to decision making)

(Ramani, 2000; Mahat, 2004; Skutsch, 1995).

At present, energy is considered as one of the vehicles for poverty alleviation as it is an

essential input for sustaining peoples livelihoods (Clancy, Skutsch, and Bachelor 2000). Energy

poverty reflects the low access to better energy services at one end. However, the deprivations

caused by energy poverty on human development are much more significant than the energy

poverty itself (Ramani, 2004; Modi, McDade, Lallement and Sagir, 2006). For instance, energy

has equity dimensions as the richer households can afford higher quality fuel than the poorer

households (Clancy, Skutsch, and Bachelor 2000; Cecelski, 2004). In this case, women from the

poorer households suffer from large health problems, spend more time in collecting firewood and pay higher price per unit of energy (Reddy, 2000; ESMAP, 1999). Such problems restrict

womens capabilities to participate in other economic and social activities and thereby their

wellbeing.

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In addition, energy in rural areas reflects more human energy than

biomass and other sources of fuel (Cecelski, 2000). The problem is not lack

of biomass energy but lack of womens time and labor to manage the

household energy. In rural areas of Nepal womens time and labor are more

valued that functions for achieving the wellbeing of a family. W omens role in

production of energy and in reproduction of household income through small scale enterprises at

household level are often undermined (Bhattachan, 2001; Cecelski, 2000; Skutsch, 1995). For

instance, women are the main producers and managers of biomass energy in rural areas, while

they have little access in decision making processes in regard to any energy interventions such as

locating biogas plant (Cecelski, 2000; Skutsch, 1996; Mark, 1995). While women value their

roles in such decisions (agency freedom) to achieve their well being. In absence of work sharing

at household level, women do heavy physical exercise, spend long working hours and suffer

from numerous health problems (e.g smoke related diseases) in managing the biomass energy

that deprives their production and reproduction capacities affecting their well being (Acharya,

2001; Cecelski, 2000).

3. Conceptual Model

The chart below presents the conceptual framework of my study indicating how the use of

biomass energy causes multiple deprivations of the rural households affecting their well being

and agency freedom and its last impact on human development.

Social Deprivation

As stated earlier, biomass is one of the major sources of cooking in rural areas, which is

mainly managed by women. Women and children in developing countries suffer

disproportionately, as they spend much of their time gathering wood (Cecelski, 2000; Mahat,

2004). Using biomass as a major source of fuel indicates the low accessibility to alternative fuels

by the poorest households and thus involves equity concerns, which in turn affects womens

workload and their health. For instance, burning traditional biomass over open fires or in

inefficient stoves contributes to health-threatening indoor air pollution (World Bank, 2000;

Barnes, 2005). The World Health Organization estimates that 1.6 million of these

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deaths are women and children, whose responsibility for domestic chores

makes them relatively more exposed to indoor air pollution from cooking and

heating . Similarly, carrying heavy firewood causes numerous health problems such as

miscarriage, chest problems and uterine prolapsed (Earth and Sthapit, 2002; World Bank, 2000;

Haile, 1991).

In addition, girl children are often withdrawn from school to work at home for helping

their mothers in energy related activities, such as carrying firewood. These problems are

attributed to the social deprivation, which restricts womens choices and their capacities for

production and reproduction.

Biomass

Energy

Social

deprivation

Economicdeprivation

Ecological

deprivation

Culturaldeprivation

Lowwell being

and agencyfreedom

Lowwell

beingfreedom

Low well being andagencyfreedom

Low well beingfreedom

Human

Development/Freedom

HumanDevelopment/Freedom



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Economic Deprivation

Absence of sufficient and quality energy hinders the growth and efficiency. It restricts the

economic and social opportunities for rural households and to start any new ventures and energy

based enterprises (REN21, 2005). This affects relative income deprivations and in turn, affects

on the capabilities deprivations of the many rural households (Sen, 1999).

For instance, using biomass as the major source of energy consumes considerable time

and labour for women, which allows limited time and opportunities for economic activities

(Skutsch, 1996; Cecelski, 2004, Mahat, 2004). This adds to the household poverty which, in turn,

limits access to better energy services limiting the production and reproduction capacities of

women and production and income opportunities of HHS.

Ecological deprivation

Using biomass for energy causes depletion of the forest resources which has a negative

impact on its inhabitants as it contributes to the extinction of natural species due to the change in

climate (Najam and Cleveland, 2003). Since forests are habitats for large number of species,

their degradation directly affects the loss of biodiversity. Rural populations in poor countries pay

the highest price for environmental degradation, as their livelihoods depend on the goods andservices from the ecosystems (e.g. generation of water, wood and non-wood forest products, fuel,

cycling of nutrients, replenishment of soil fertility, prevention of erosion, carbon sequestration

and storage, recreation, etc) (Koziell and McNeil, 2002).

Women are generally more vulnerable to environmental hazards than men, due to closer

exposure to risks (e.g. contaminated water, long distances to collect water and fuel) (Cecelski,

2004; Pearce, 2005). In addition, use of biomass from farm to fire is not only a threat to

environment but also reduces the farm productivity due to the degradation of soil quality, which

is one of the major causes of food insecurity (Barnes, 2005; OECD, 2002; Thapa, 1994)). Such

deprivation restricts production opportunities of rural households adds to human poverty

especially of womens agency to achieve the well being.

Cultural Deprivation

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Culture refers to the collective identity of group of people to follow a way of life of its

choice. Thus cultural freedom protects not only the group but also the rights of every individual

within it (Matilla and Sepilla, 2000 ). For instance, in rural areas of Nepal , women have very close

link with forest system as a survival strategy.

Given the existing patriarch culture of Nepalese society, women are fully responsible of

household chores such as carrying firewood, fetching water, cooking, and caring of children

(Acharya, 1989; Bhattacharya, 2000). Use of biomass adds work burden of women as women are

fully responsible for collecting and managing biomass for household energy. At the same time,

women have less access in decision making regarding the energy resources, and any new

interventions, while they provide their full labour for these work. It restricts womens agency to

function well towards their well being both because they have less opportunities with the culturalimpositions and because their values are undermined (Rajavi, 1999, 1998).

Strategic Model

The chart below for strategic model helps to operationalize the concept that I explained

earlier. In other words, how the better energy services (affordable, accessible and reliable) can

help to alleviate the deprivations and thereby promote the well being and agency freedom for

overall human development.

As UNDP has emphasized in MDG the need of better energy services for improving the

live qualities of rural population, the challenge is then to identify appropriate energy services

including the modern fuel to replace the traditional biomass energy that causes multiple

deprivations affecting the overall well being of the rural households. Especially, the opportunity

cost in terms of time and labour of women in collecting firewood is so huge and they have a

severe impact on human poverty ultimately affecting the well being of rural households.

Availability of better energy services help reduce ARI among young children and women

caused by domestic air pollution and other health problems caused by traditional energy

resources such as chest pain, miscarriages and uterus prolapsed. Especially the work burden of

women for collecting firewood can be reduced through the help of better energy options such as

improved biomass technology.

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Having access to better energy options, both men and especially women are free (more

time and labor) to be involved in other productive activities thus increasing their capabilities for

enhancing the well being of their families. In addition, both men and women can see moreopportunities in terms of energy based small enterprises to increase their income in order to

improve their well being. Especially, women and girl children can pursue their rights for self

enhancement through education and employment opportunities as they will become freer with

the better energy options. This can help both men and women to pursue well being freedom as

they achieve the wellbeing and the agency freedom that they value to achieve. For instance, as

AffordableAccessible and

Reliable energy

Saved timeandlabor for

productiveactivities

Increasedaccess to rightsandopportunities

Improvedhealth and

reduceddrudgery

increasedcapabilitiesfor

productiveactivities

HumanDevelo

pment/freedom

HumanDevelopment/freedom


Well being +Agency Freedom

m


Well being +AgencyFreedom

m

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women become educated and employed, they are more capable to participate in decision making

process at household as well as community level. With the increase in capabilities through the

freedom they enjoy, their own as well as the familys wellbeing can be achieved that can

contribute to overall human development (e.g. health, education, and income status). This in

turn, helps to improve the live qualities of the rural households again enabling to achieve higher

level of well being that they have a reason to value.

In addition, when the poor households had to rely less on firewood from the forest not

only for their own use, but for the purpose of selling to make income, there will be higher

chances of ecological balance as it has a least effect on the vegetation and the climate change.

This will help continue to sustain the ecological resources for promoting the sustainable

livelihood of rural population.

Hence, energy and poverty relations are both cyclical and hierarchical and address themultiple deprivations especially those related to social and cultural.The challenges are then to

identify better energy options in order to initiate better energy services not only in terms of

providing better fuel for cooking for the majority, but also for addressing the overall human

development and the well being of rural households.

5. Reflection on The case Study

5.1 Research Design

My present research builds on my PhD data and a good theoretical framework that has been

built on from sufficient literature reviews. I also collected new data in order to obtain additional

information on social and cultural deprivations with biomass energy resources, analyze biomass

energy policies at national, and regional level and to come up with appropriate policy strategies in

relation to biomass energy options.

The fieldwork was undertaken in Kavre district of Nepal, where UNDP has initially

implemented rural energy program with a focus on micro hydro electricity. Kavre is one of the hilly

districts in Nepal comprising of population with diverse economic, ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

Agriculture is a major source of livelihood; however, people are also engaged in small trading, wage

labour, and fishing activities.

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Two VDCs namely Mangaltar (27.35 km from district headquarter) and Katunjebeshi

(22.53 km from district headquarter) were selected as a base to continue my research that was taken

from PhD fieldwork. Participants were selected purposively to accommodate the research needs

as the key informant interviews were the major tools of my research. At village level the

participants were identified by discussing with some key people such as local health workers,

village heads and other village authorities who can provide some general information on the

socio-economic backgrounds of participants. Based on their information and through the

personal observations during the field visits, the participants (mostly women) were selected for

interviews who were found to be the key resource persons for my research. While selecting these

participants, gender, ethnicity, and class were taken into account.

At regional and national level, the participants were the representatives of different institutions

working in energy related fields that included implementing agencies, donors, and thegovernment authorities at the top. Semi structured interviews were conducted with policy makers

at regional (district) and national level and thus the biases on information were checked in both

ways.

One of the major limitations of my field research reflects the time constraints of participants

since the local women were always occupied with one or the other activities. It was hard to catch up

with womens time and I had to be very flexible to be accommodated according to their

convenience. In addition, it was a heavy agricultural season and locating the participants for my

research was a difficult task.

5.2 Analysis of Findings

My current research highlighted on human dimensions of energy deprivations and thus following

important issues related to biomass energy were analyzed.

Availability of Biomass

Firewood being a major source of household energy followed by the agricultural residue and

animal waste has a huge contribution in total energy system of the households representing an

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excessive reliance on traditional sources of energy (Table 1). There were no effective options for

household cooking due to the lack of development of other energy alternatives.

Table 1 presents the use of biomass by rural households in two villages of Kavre.

Table 1: Use of Biomass by Rural Households(Percentage of Respondents)

Source: Personal Observation, 2008

During the field visit, it was found that majority of the households in all community used

firewood for cooking although a few households had installed the biogas plant recently. In

addition, these households could not fully rely on the biogas plant for meeting their energy needs

as they still needed to use the firewood for ritual cooking as well as for space heating, and for

livestock feeding. Many households used the agricultural residue such as corn and paddy sticksfor preparing livestock feeding. Especially among Brahmin community, women also used

agricultural residue and animal dung for cooking their daily meals due to the lack of firewood as

they have a little time for collecting firewood.

The local women had to travel about 4 hours to collect a bunch of firewood from others

forest (private forest). In total, they would spend about 6 hours per day. Collecting firewood

from others forests was not an easy task. Sometimes women had to run and break their legs with

the fear of being caught and paying the penalties. Majority of women used to collect the fodder

grasses around their own field for livestock feeding and the fodders were still used for cooking as

they did not have time to go to the forest (Fig.1).

Figure 1 presents the peoples access to firewood in two villages of Kavre.

Types of Fuelwood Used

Qty. of Fuel Used

Fuel wood

Agricultural residue

Animal Waste

91 %

7 %

2 %

Total biomass used 100 %

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Figure 1: Access to Firewood by Rural Households

(Percentage of Respondents)


There was a community forest in the local area; however, the local people could collect only

the dropped woods and residues as it was protected. They would also buy the firewood once a

year when the community forests are opened for cleaning. Every villager had access to the public

forest (national); however, there were not enough firewood to meet the energy demands of the

local people.

Overall, it was observed that womens time was scarce than the availability of biomass in the

local area. Although firewood was not enough in the local forests, majority of the household

used their own fields for collecting fodder grasses and the residue sticks were used for cooking

as they did not have sufficient time to go to the forest.

Work Load

During the field observation, it was noticed that womens workload remained heavy even

with the availability of infrastructures such as road network and electricity. My research villages

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located in the mid hill areas of Nepal features a huge work burden for women for collecting

firewood in order to meet cooking and heating needs. Since the houses made of mud and stones

would get very cold during the winter season, it was impossible for the local people to remain in

the house without using firewood for heating the houses. Apart from other household chores,

collecting and cooking with firewood involved a heavy work burden especially for women.

Table 2 below represents the gender roles in household energy management in two villages

of Kavre.

Table 2: Gender Roles in Household Energy management(Percentage of Respondents)


Although some men in Tamang community shared this work, women took the major

responsibility for collecting and managing the firewood for cooking (Table 2). Men

especially from Brahmin community were however, involved in cutting trees as women were

considered not to be strong for this job.

Table 3 below presents the problems related to womens workload in collecting and

cooking with firewood at household level. Women were more concerned on their work load

regarding the collection of firewood, as it consumed long time to walk and to look for the

firewood. As stated earlier, women had spent almost a day to collect a bunch of firewood.

Their worries were also on catching up by the owners while stealing the firewood from the

private forest. Besides this, women were overwhelmingly concerned about the smokescaused by biomass burning that affected their health in different ways (Table 3).

Who cuts downTrees?

Who collects firewood ?

Who stores it?

Women

Men

Both

35

44

21

65

5

30

71

3

26Total 100 100 100

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Table 3: Problems in Collecting and Cooking with Firewood (Percentages of Cases)


The heavy work on cleaning utensils and houses caused by burning firewood has been

one of the major problems for women in rural villages of Kavre. It took a considerable time

for them in cleaning the houses, dishes and linens as they become dirty frequently while

cooking with firewood and other biomass resources.

With availability of diesel mills and micro hydro mills, womens work load was reducedto some extent as they did not have to use their labor (human energy) in processing the

agricultural product. However, in rural areas of Nepal, the major problem with household

energy is related with household cooking and heating, which is the basic for living. Women

had spent a considerable time and energy both for collecting and cooking with firewood,

while bearing enormous losses, discomforts, and pains as indicated in the table above. As

women were always occupied with household chores including the management of

household energy resources, they have very little time for other economic and social

activities that could enable them to be empowered socially and economically. This is truer in

case of Brahmin community as there is less work ethos among the men and women in this

community unlike with Tamang community, in which men also take responsibility for

housework.

Problems in CollectingFirewood

% of Cases Problems inCooking with

Firewood

% of Cases

Long distance to walk

No time to go to forest

Lack of firewood(long time to collect)

Risky (falling down fromtrees, paying penalties)

Costly to buy

Other

86.2

34.5

48.3

34.5

15.5

13.8

More smoke

Dirty utensils

Dirty house

Hard to blow

Eye irritation

Long time to cook

High heat during

summer

98.6

82.5

57.3

28.0

26.6

4.2

2.8

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Health related problems

It was observed that the majority of the women in the villages had got eye problems and lung

disease, which is related to biomass cooking (Table 4). In the villages, the houses were built in

traditional ways having no exit for smokes. Thus smokes would spread inside the house causing

different kind of health and hygiene problems. A woman in an interview expressed that we are

used to with smokes even though we feel eye irritation and headaches so often, as we have no

other options (Personal interview, 2008). Domestic air pollution is found to be one of the major

reasons for maternal and infant mortality in rural areas of Nepal. There were few households that

used the improved stoves installing with the chimney for smoke outlet. However, the local

women were not made aware of the technical problems related to chimney and most of them

went back to use the traditional stoves that they find most comfortable with.Table 4 presents the problems related to health caused by biomass energy at household level.

Table 4: Selected Health problems in Two Villages(Percentage of Cases)


There were few women who mentioned about prolapsed uterus while carrying heavy firewood.

However, this problem was combined with other household chores that added their workload.

Especially in rural areas, women start going to the fields or forest within a month of maternity,

which caused the problems of uterus prolapsed. This problem was not very much identified by

the women themselves due to their unawareness about the association of the problem. In many

cases, women remained quiet not expressing this problem on their own as they felt shy. It was

noticed however, the majority of women in the past had suffered from this problem although not

mentioned directly. Such situations were explored through indirect conversation. A woman

Health Problems Men Women

Eye problems

Lung disease

Asthma

Uterus Prolapsed

35

21

-

-

73.0

41.0

13.5

49.5

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expressed that we never know that prolapsed uterus is caused by heavy workload, and we feel

shy to express this problem (Personal interview. 2008).

Wellbeing and Agency freedom

Wellbeing freedom is related with the live qualities of people. For instance, people must be

free to achieve the basic education, basic housing, basic health and quality foods. In the rural

areas of Nepal, people especially women are deprived of such well being. For instance, the girl

children are allowed to go to school only if they finish housework and they are dropped off from

school if they had to travel far from the villages to achieve basic education. Only the few girls

from richer households had gone to the adjacent villages to continue their higher secondary

education and the college education was very rare. Similarly, food habits of women are affected by existing cultural circumstances as men often eat first and get enough good food and women

eat leftovers and not all varieties of food in many cases. Women often refuse to re cook even if

there is not enough food left for them (they feel tired of cooking) and they remain hungry whole

day while spending the same energy for household chores. This has caused numerous health

problems such as ulcer, and gastric. A woman interviewed mentioned that our elders especially

father-in-law, brother-in laws eat first and we women eat later all the leftovers. We do not care if we

have enough or not ( personal interview, 2008 ). The local women expressed that they have very

little time and opportunity for education and health care and for participating in other economic

and social activities.

Agency freedom is related with the opportunities to exercise peoples wisdom and abilities

that works for achieving wellbeing. Every person has agency, every person analyses, decides,

and acts. Carrying out our own analyses, making our own decisions, and taking our own actions

involve the agency freedom. However, in rural villages of Kavre, women hardly exercise the

agency freedom. They have a little power to decide on their own if they want to participate in the

activities outside home. It was observed in the villages that women hardly participated in thevillage level meetings organized for different activities such as rural energy program, and road

building program. Although women were the active contributors in constructing micro hydro

canals, and raising and mobilizing saving funds, their participation in community and village

level decisions was nominal. Men were the decision makers at village level. A woman mentioned

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that we do not have time to participate in such meetings and we also have a little

understandings of the subjects matter . On the other hand, some other women mentioned that

we are not encouraged by the family members to participate in such meetings (Personal

interview, 2008). It was a mix of ideas and thoughts about their participation. However, it was

observed that at village level, women have active participation in community forestry program

and to manage and preserve the forest for saving the village environment. They participated in

village level meetings and share the ideas with male members in the forest committee. However,

women hardly have time and opportunities to participate in other economic and social activities

that could enable them to be empowered economically as well as socially. In some cases, women

were involved in cash crops and livestock production at personal level and make their personal

income by selling those products. However, they still use the income for the welfare of the

family, although such incomes help their economic empowerment and raise their self esteem for the well being of the whole family. In an interview a woman mentioned that Our life is around

the forest and the house, no matter whatever technologies are there. We can not be free from

firewood and fodder, and free from our house. Our work is waiting for us, who will let us go for

enjoying meetings and trainings (Personal interview, 2008).

Equity vs. Efficiency

Using biomass for cooking has many concerns for equity. For instance, only a few wealthy

households have used the quality fuel such as modern combusted biomass (biogas) for cooking,

while the poorer household had to rely on low quality biomass fuel such as agricultural residue

and animal dung. A woman in an interview mentioned that There are biogas plants in this

village for many years but it is no use for us as we can not have it because we cannot afford it

(personal interview, 2008). Similarly, women from poorer households had to walk long distances

for collecting firewood unlike the wealthy household who can also buy the firewood or other fuel

such as LPG. Such situations have brought the numerous health problems especially for womenand children. Many women in the villages were found to be affected by ARI apart from the other

health problems such as eye irritation, and prolapsed uterus.

While alternative technologies can have potential for reducing the drudgery and increasing

the income of a household, they have not been able to reach to the larger section of the society.

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For instance, only 15% of the households have access to the solar lighting. Similarly, in each

village only a few households are able to install the biogas plants, while majority are out of reach

for such plants even with subsidies. This situation has created even more inequalities in the

villages creating a large socio-economic gap within a small community. Hence, unless and until

the technologies are designed for pro poor and subsidies are channelled accordingly, majority of

the poor remain out of reach with such technologies. In addition, the social and technical aspects

of technologies were rather neglected that has caused low adoptability of such technologies. For

instance, in many cases, women are not made aware of the technical problems, such as leakages

of biogas stoves, and process of cleaning chimney outlets etc. Hence, they feel uncomfortable

with these technologies and just turned down to the traditional stoves that they find most

comfortable with. A woman in an interview mentioned that we cook with biogas, but if it goes

wrong sometimes we do not know how to fix it. And there are no men around the house. So webetter use the firewood (Personal interview, 2008). Improved Stoves (ICS) program and Biogas

program without a package (e.g. monitoring the socio-economic impact, effectiveness of stoves,

and use of chimney and so on) has been less effective and less adoptable by many rural women

especially in the hilly areas of Nepal.

In addition, the AETs like solar plant, micro-hydro power have only been used for basic

lighting and no other potentials have been explored that could help to utilize the local resources

such as womens knowledge and skill and the local produce. AETs have large potentials to

initiate home based enterprises such as dairy production and handicrafts, where women can have

a good access, which could empower women both socially as well as economically.

7. Conclusion

It is unlikely that the poorer households in rural areas of Nepal will shift to the better fuels in

the near future due to their inability to afford the better energy services. Despite an attention to

increase the modern energy services to the poor, the emphasis is on electricity and not on the

cooking fuel. Womens drudgery related to household energy management remains unaddressed

until there is an intervention focusing on womens workload and domestic air pollution. Energy

planning without its integration with social indicators such as womens empowerment and

poverty reduction has a little effect on the overall development of the community especially of

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women. There has been an effort to address the household energy issues by focusing on the short

term vs. long term energy policy plan that demands for increasing the coverage of biogas plant in

short term and integrating the micro hydro plant for cooking in the long term. However, such

plans need to be improvised with other sectors policies. Given the socio-economic conditions of

the rural households, even the subsidized plants are less reachable to the poorest section of the

society, unless the subsidies are made pro poor. Majority of households in rural areas are built of

mud and stones and roofed with straws and thatches without having strong base that makes it

difficult to have electric cables for household cooking.

In order to address the cooking related problems, there is a critical need for interventions that

effectively reduce the high level of indoor air pollutions including the continued development of

Improved Cooking Stoves. However, development of ICS and building of ICS is not the end for

solving the targeted problem, they have to be integrated with training on construction of ICS andchimney related problem, and phase wise monitoring program, that ensures the effective

application of ICS. In addition, there is a need of sustainable harvesting of firewood in order to

ensure its continuous supply to meet the basic household energy needs. It is also a time to think

about the type of fuel technologies and its delivery mechanism that can possibly help to make a

large scale transition away from traditional biomass cooking for the majority of poor. As

mentioned earlier, managing biomass energy for cooking has a significant impact on womens

workload and their health, which have hindered their capabilities and opportunities for

participating in economic and other social activities. This has restricted their freedom both for

achieving their own well being and the family as a whole as well as the community and nation at

large.

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