A flame the state cannot guarantee, Pg6

Key Highlights:

• India's LPG crisis began in March 2026 due to disruptions from the West Asia war, highlighting import dependence and inadequate storage.
• The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), which connected 32.83 crore households to clean cooking fuel, failed to protect households during the crisis.
• India imports about 60% of its LPG consumption, with 90% passing through the Strait of Hormuz, and its strategic reserves cover only 9.5 days of crude oil supply.
• Rising LPG prices have caused many PMUY beneficiaries to revert to biomass, with Scheduled Caste and tribal households facing disproportionately lower access.

Detailed Insights:

• The PMUY scheme provided 10.33 crore connections to women from below-poverty-line households since 2016, significantly increasing LPG coverage.
• Phasing out PDS kerosene shifted reliance to a globalized commodity market, exposing vulnerability when the Strait of Hormuz was disrupted.
• The welfare architecture focused on scaling uptake but lacked mechanisms to ensure continuity during supply chain disruptions.
• The branding of PMUY implied a sovereign guarantee, but the state lacked physical infrastructure to support supply when the market failed.
• Many PMUY beneficiaries struggled with refill costs even before the crisis, leading to a return to biomass due to rising prices and mandatory booking gaps.
• Scheduled Caste and tribal households face lower LPG access due to distributor networks replicating caste hierarchies in supply allocation.
• Women, as formal beneficiaries, bear the burden of reverting to biomass when LPG supply fails, highlighting a gendered dimension of the crisis.
• Solutions include a two-month strategic LPG buffer, diversified import routes, publicly available crisis protocols, and community biogas initiatives like GOBARdhan.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY): A government scheme providing LPG connections to women from below-poverty-line households.

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojna

• Strategic Petroleum Reserves: Stockpiles of crude oil maintained by a country to mitigate supply disruptions.
• Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT): A mechanism for transferring subsidies directly into the bank accounts of beneficiaries.