Millions of households in India still use solid fuels for cooking today. This is an important energy access, health and environmental problem as household air pollution caused by burning solid fuels for cooking is a major source of mortality and morbidity as well as outdoor air pollution in India. There is also a gender dimension to this as it is primarily women who cook and fetch solid fuels. At the same time, multiple clean fuel-technologies have the potential to address this challenge. Given this multi-dimensional, multi-fuel nature of the problem, there is a need to involve different stakeholders from relevant sectors to accelerate the transition to clean fuel-technologies through targeted policy. It is in this context that a roundtable discussion was organized by Prayas (Energy Group), Prayas (Health Group) and the Collaborative Clean Air Policy Centre (CCAPC) to deliberate on the institutional architecture of a mission for clean cooking energy called "Clean Cooking Mission: A way to transition to completely smoke-free kitchens" on June 20, 2018 in New Delhi.
The roundtable began with background presentations by Prayas and CCAPC, which were followed by a discussion among the participants on selected questions. It was attended by representatives from the government, academia, think tanks and practitioners covering the energy, health, environment and gender aspects of the problem.
The report below summarizes the discussions that took place and provides a complete list of participants. The presentations are also available below. The Prayas presentation is based on the Prayas report Fuelling the transition.