Worldwide, approximately 2.5 billion people rely on traditional fuels and wood as their primary source of energy. In the Global South, biomass is a necessity for households to satisfy their everyday energy needs due to its accessibility and affordability (Abeliotis & Pakuta., 2013). But in combination with poverty and other socioeconomic factors, the extensive use of biomass resources has led to rapid rates of deforestation, depletion of natural resources, and is associated with global warming (Jan, 2012). The epidemiology of everyday life has often been overlooked with regards to the ramifications of emissions from traditional cookstoves.
The global burden of diseases at a household level in India alone has found exposure to household air pollution (HAP) that is contributed partly by biomass cookstoves has affected 145 million directly with death counts of up to 900 000 (Kumar, Chalise, & Yadama, 2016). Using traditional technologies (e.g., cookstoves) are often energy inefficient and involve incomplete combustion, which is detrimental to human health and the environment. Additionally, the main by-product that accrues from using biomass technologies is smoke, which is a combination of particulate matter and chemical gases (Abeliotis & Pakuta. 2013). Constituents that are part of the make up of these chemical gases include particulate matter, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. The range of health effects that accrue from prolong exposure to biomass fumes include mortality, cancer, respiratory and cardiovascular disease (Abeliotis & Pakuta. 2013).
Women and young children are disproportionally affected from the use of biomass technologies and are vulnerable to lengthy exposure to HAP due to spending the most time in their home. They account for nearly half of the deaths attributed to acute lower respiratory infections in developing countries with the highest incidence found in children under the age of five in India (Kumar et al., 2016). Moreover, biomass contributes to the intergenerational cycle of poverty for poor households who use biomass fuel as their primary source of energy (Kumar et al., 2016). For example, the opportunity costs for women to fulfill their expectations to perform household duties such as cooking, childcare, and spending time procuring biomass materials impedes women from opportunities to partake in alternative livelihoods and obtain an education. Women are also at risk of physical injuries due to sexual harassment, assault, and from accidents from the physical burden of carrying substantial loads of biomass (Kumar et al., 2016). Some of these concerns highlight the complexity of the challenges in using biomass as a source of energy.
Globally, key stakeholders on sustainable energy and technology alternatives such as the World Bank has positioned itself to play a significant role in establishing partnerships and collaborating with governments in designing effective, sustainable clean energy programs targeted towards poor households. However, programs that aim to diffuse improved cookstoves or fuel-efficient, cleaner technologies have often experienced low adoption rates (Jan, 2012). This paper will explore various socio-cultural frameworks to investigate the social dynamics that prevent the transition and uptake of modern, sustainable energy sources and technology from traditional ones in rural India. Environment and human health will be discussed to understand the context and implications of biomass cookstoves. Cultural perspectives and streams of adoption pathways are also included followed by a case example of the lessons learned from a previous government intervention in India called the National Program on Improved Chulhas (NPIC). Various socio-cultural theoretical frameworks and social approaches will then be discussed, namely the Cultural Consensus Analysis, an Ethnographic approach, and a Community-based System Dynamics Approach to further investigate the dimensions of social forces and cultural perceptions that promote and challenge the use of alternative sources of energy and fuel.
Lastly, from various household energy programs implemented in other countries, insights will be drawn from the World Bank’s recommendations to draw upon key themes as a guide for countries such as India to consider the next steps in improving existing initiatives and creating innovative strategies that are culturally and socially sensitive to local context. These recommendations will comprise of aspects related to project design ranging from developing and distributing energy efficient technologies, to information dissemination and building institutional capacity as playing a crucial role in improving successful outcomes.
To transition the large proportion of Indian households (i.e., 160 million) to sustainable technologies will yield massive advantages in improving health and well being of the most vulnerable groups within the population (Venkataraman et al., 2010). Factors affecting a household’s decision to technologically adopt cleaner cookstoves are contextual and extrinsically linked with influences that interconnect with social, political, cultural, and economical forces. So to successfully implement the transition to alternative technologies, looking at the local context and mobilizing existing capacity such as community assets must be considered.
Background
Environmental Impacts
In India, biomass is the primary source of energy for cooking and heating where it exists in many forms including wood, crop residues, and animal waste. In 2005, 90% of rural households used it as their main source of cooking fuel (Venkataraman et al., 2010). One of the main traditional biomass technologies in India often used are called chulhas, which are stoves that are made up of mud, metal, cement, pottery, or brick stoves and absent of chimneys or hoods. These traditional stoves are energy inefficient (e.g., incomplete combustion) because of the limited energy extracted from the fuel and its release of significant amounts of pollutants with deleterious effects to human health and the environment (Venkataraman et al., 2010). Despite its detrimental effects, poverty is one of the major barriers in transitioning to alternative, sustainable fuels. Thus, the demand for biomass is unlikely to decrease in the near future, as it is highly accessible and affordable (Kumar et al., 2016).
With biomass as one of the main resource utilized for providing everyday household energy needs, it has become increasingly linked to global warming. The black carbon generated from incomplete combustion of biomass fuels is one of the top factors responsible for increasing global temperatures next to carbon dioxide emissions (Ekouevi et al., 2012). Although black carbon remains in the atmosphere for a couple of days to several weeks, it lessens the ability of snow or ice to reflect sunlight off absorbing heat in the atmosphere. Another biomass source, wood, has exacerbated growing energy scarcity from the exploitation of resources through the depletion of distant forests (Ekouevi et al., 2012). The scarcity of wood has forced people to burn fuels from agricultural fields generating food security implications and creating greater vulnerability to erosion and soil degradation (Ekouevi et al., 2012). Lastly, traditional technologies release smoke containing copious amounts of particulate matter and gaseous pollutants containing toxic properties such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and respirable particles with diameters of 6–7 μm reducing air quality. In the design of many rural households, kitchens are often poorly ventilated creating greater implications for health (Abeliotis & Pakula, 2013).
Human Health
With respect to the environmental impacts of using traditional biomass technologies, it creates conditions that affect human health with the differential exposure and impacts made across social groups. The range of health problems is extensive due to the toxicological properties from smoke. It raises a number of health concerns from its constituents and prolonged exposure (Abeliotis & Pakula, 2013). Studies have shown the negative health outcomes include (but are not limited to) symptoms in respiratory and cardiovascular systems such as reduced lung capacity, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, airway inflammation, and increased susceptibility of respiratory infections, bronchoconstriction, unconsciousness, and death. For children, exposure to air pollutants from biomass stoves include sinus problems, childhood pneumonia and low birth weight (Abeliotis & Pakula, 2013).
Cultural Perspectives On Biomass Use and Adoption Pathways
Socially, gendered expectations position women to be more susceptible to the impacts of using biofuels. Physical injuries are produced from the burden of lifting heavy loads of biomass along with sexual harassment, and assault from procurement of biomass in the forests have great implications for health for women (Kumar et al., 2016). In addition, there is a lost opportunity cost due to the time consuming process of collecting biomass fuel sources reducing opportunities for women to pursue other income-generating activities such as pursuing education or running a business. Furthermore, both women and young children are especially vulnerable to exposure and its associated health risk due to poor air quality in the home environment as most of their time is spent there (Kumar et al., 2016).
Different social hierarchies attach a variety of cultural meanings to these traditional technologies in the caste system affecting how they perceive traditional and modern cookstoves. One study found lower castes are more willing to remove chulhas, as the practice of using the traditional stoves are perceived as polluting and in adopting newer technologies, the modernity of adopting alternative practices paves way to socially reposition themselves within society (Wang & Bailis, 2015). Higher castes attribute chulhas with ritual purity highly valuing foods prepared by chulhas for the taste it provides creating superiority for the foods in which it is prepared from. It also influences households’ willingness to transition to alternative sources of fuel and technology to various degrees (Wang & Bailis, 2015). This difference in perceptions among social classes represents a distinction in adoption pathways for cleaner technologies.
Thus, interventions must be made to not only improve air quality but also enable consider strategies to enable rural households the opportunity and capacity to transition to more sustainable alternatives to energy sources and technologies. In considering the design and implementation of household energy programs, the implications listed give prominence to not only the complexity but also the need to integrate socio-cultural processes in the design of programs to promote and sustain uptake of sustainable technological adoptions.
The National Program on Improved Chulhas (NPIC)
The Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources in India implemented the National Program on Improved Chulhas (NPIC) in 1980. The program aimed to distribute improved cookstoves that were efficient and had minimized harmful emissions (Rehman & Malhotra, 2004). But due to its mixed results, the project discontinued in 2002. This intervention was a critical milestone in the experiences and lessons learned in understanding the intricate factors and synergies that existed between a multitude of key stakeholders involved to operate on a macro-scale to address the upstream forces that impede its success (Rehman & Malhotra, 2004).
During its inception, two problem areas within these energy programs occurred with one involving researchers and institutions underlying assumptions of the publics’ likelihood of high receptivity to technological adoption if new technologies were made readily available. There was also the belief that energy efficiencies attained in the laboratories would effectively transfer over in real world conditions (Rehman & Malhotra, 2004). Furthermore, failure to introduce and properly market the stoves across various regions lacked effective communication of the health benefits in adopting improved stoves to the public, reducing its likely uptake and sustained use. Other issues that transpired were the power imbalances and limited interactions between stakeholders, local pressures, limited enforcement/regulations, and the unsuitability of the size and design of the stoves for users (Rehman & Malhotra, 2004). For the wide-scale dissemination of new cookstoves that was made possible through government subsidies, it was discovered it contributed to market distortions by hindering the ability to commercialize improved cookstoves to the greater population (Rehman & Malhotra, 2004).
In order for successful promotion to occur, targeting influential stakeholders could be made towards local leaders or committees within the region such as women groups to communicate the benefits offered for households through the use of improved cookstoves (IC) such as reduced emissions, time saving, and cleanliness (Rehman & Malhotra, 2004). Additionally, the affordability of the new stoves was another main barrier for many low-income rural households and the maintenance that is required (Rehman & Malhotra, 2004).
IC energy programs across various states in India have held their own set of challenges and unique set of insights. This outlined the importance of the multisectoral nature of this issue of households’ sustainable energy and technology access. Also, consideration must be made within the local context to cultivating synergistic relationships of all stakeholders through out the process of the projects.
Socio-Cultural Approach: Cultural Consensus Analysis
Socio-cultural approaches can provide more practicality of understanding local contextual needs that may not be provided when using other approaches such as socio-economic approaches, as it considers factors that may be overlooked and addresses regional variations with respect to household energy (Jagadish & Dwivedi, 2018). Challenges in cookstove programs implemented by institutions and non-governmental organizations are often creating strategies to improve sustained technological adoptions of newer technologies.
A study conducted in the Lug Valley of Himachal Pradesh, India used a cultural consensus analysis to understand the shared beliefs regarding the preference for utilizing biomass fuels and technologies (Jagadish & Dwivedi, 2018). What was found through adopting this approach was that that these cookstoves occupied a niche in order to fulfill a specific need (e.g., taste preference). Influential factors that contributed to impeding successful uptake of alternative technologies was the lack in considering local context, the accessibility of biomass, limited alternative options for other energy sources, and underdeveloped infrastructure to capacitate up-to-date sustainable technologies (Jagadish & Dwivedi, 2018). Additional factors existing at a household level are things like seasonality, food preparation preference provided by certain cookstoves, smoke emissions, and cleanliness (Jagadish & Dwivedi, 2018). With these factors in mind between the cookstove designers and users, there was limited interaction made to engage with community members on their particular needs with respect to dissemination and diffusion of cleaner cookstoves (Jagadish & Dwivedi, 2018). This creates lower adoption of ICs due to the incompatibility with users preference and lifestyle.
An Ethnographic Approach to Biomass
India has the highest proportion of biomass users in the world since 2016. The energy source that is recognized to be the gold standard for energy due to its low output of harmful emissions is liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) (Chatti et al., 2017). The government as a result launched a national energy program in an effort to expand this energy sector through subsidies (Chatti et al., 2017). However, a phenomenon called ‘stove stacking’ was a common occurrence among the cookstove energy programs. Stove stacking is when households use a combination of LPG technologies with their traditional biomass stoves (Chatti et al., 2017). In the Indian Himalayas, using alternative sustainable technologies alone such as LPG is not sufficient to meet rural community needs for reasons due to the supply of LPG being tied to power and access within local networks, seasonality and underdeveloped infrastructure (i.e., poor road conditions during monsoon/winter), and inconsistent interventions made in institutions (e.g., political good will) (Chatti et al., 2017).
Culturally, people’s perspective on the safety and cleanliness of certain fuels differ due to their own belief systems. In rural areas in the Himalayas, emic views on purity of fuels are often guided by beliefs of spiritual purity and pollution and are contrasted with etic ideas on the cleanliness of the fuel (Chatti et al., 2017). Natural sources used for energy that is endowed by nature such as trees and plants are emblematic of life and divinity. Thus, woodfuels can be considered pure in some households as the chemical smell emitted from alternative gases such as LPG generates suspicion (Chatti et al., 2017).
In addition, because the newer technologies are not able to meet local needs year round, it drives households to do stove stacking and continue utilizing biomass stoves. In this instance, stove stacking is not symbolic of the discomfort of relinquishing traditional knowledge for enhanced performances nor does it reflect a discomfort with modernity (Chatti et al., 2017). Rather it is indicative of the pragmatism that reflects ideas of new energy supply while juxtaposing the knowledge on reliable energy sources such as biomass rendering its popularity as a reliable source of energy that is highly accessible and is what consumers have greater control over (Chatti et al., 2017).
Community-based System Dynamic Approaches
Studies have explored novel types of approaches to analyze other dimensions that influence factors affecting sustained adoption and gradual discontinuation of these new technologies that implemented at a community level. Social processes is a facet worthy of investigating and one in which its analysis can be made in understanding social dynamics that drive behavioral trends contextual to communities (Wang & Bailis, 2015). One example is the community-based system dynamic approach (CBSD), which seeks to investigate complex systems to delineate feedback mechanisms rooted at the core of the problem. This process facilitates greater inclusion and empowerment through providing opportunities for marginalized social groups to contribute to the dialogue to addressing focal topics and defining the problem (Wang & Bailis, 2015). Through this approach, it generates more validity to the concepts and receptivity to primary stakeholders by forming collaborative partnerships to produce appropriate recommendations and provide communities with valuable insights such as learning the advantages on employing alternative, sustainable technologies (Wang & Bailis, 2015).
The nature of the process for this approach is cyclical and carried out through a series of processes in a chronological order. The stages are designed to build on enhancing the existing knowledge of a problem defined by the community (Wang & Bailis, 2015). This involves working with the members firsthand to identify the problem, design models/structure elicitation, model presentation/validation, and to ultimately develop a system dynamics model to improve interventions and sustain uptake of alternative technologies (Wang & Bailis, 2015).
Lessons Learned From Various Energy Programs Internationally
Various household energy programs have been initiated in much of the Global South for countries undergoing complex energy transition trajectories in conjunction with their growing economies. Countries with household energy programs that were looked at in more depth included case studies from China, Guatemala, Tanzania and Thailand (Ekouevi et al., 2012). Many important lessons were made during the programs implementation and evaluation process in these countries. Some of the main lessons include: a) the need to integrate holistic approaches to address household energy scarcity, b) need for public awareness campaigns and local participation, c) ineffectiveness of fuel subsidies in helping the poor, d) consideration on stove design on needs and preference for its users, e) and successful dissemination is determined by the durability of IC (Ekouevi et al., 2012).
a) Incorporating holistic approaches can ensure programs widely cover supply-side interventions (e.g., sustainable biomass supply), touch on the demand aspect such as fuel alternatives and diffusion of cookstoves, and ensure institutional capacity development in generating incentives for sustainable production of biomass materials through regulatory measures and to facilitate transitions to cleaner fuels (Ekouevi et al., 2012).
b) Looking at community-level capacity, creating synergies that facilitate inclusion through active engagement with community members on education and as part of the project design process will aid to change socio-cultural perspectives of new technologies. In informing members on their roles and responsibilities along with indirect and direct benefits associated with using IC, it can improve sustained adoption and ensure program success (Ekouevi et al., 2012). In addition, building technology literacy by training users on the technicalities of new cookstoves reduces costs in its maintenance providing economic opportunities and generating a sense of ownership throughout the process.
c) In subsidizing fuel commodities, it has been shown to exacerbate energy poverty among vulnerable populations while greatly benefitting the wealthy (Ekouevi et al., 2012). In India, the National Program for Improved Chulhas (NPIC) has found poor maintenance of improved stoves by households because of high subsidies of alternative sustainable cookstoves from the government. This resulted in the transition for many of the population back to traditional stoves and the government falling into large fiscal deficits with a divergence in public expenditures that may have been more effective (Ekouevi et al., 2012).
d) Through experiences from China and Kenya, factors influencing technological adoption and designing IC that must be accounted for are “…family size, the type of food cooked, and the cooking techniques used†(Ekouevi et al., 2012). Because women are the primary users to cookstoves due to their prominence in household duties, they are typically likely to decide on an improved stove if it is affordable, and does not alter the taste or quantity of the foods cooked (Ekouevi et al., 2012). These factors can be drawn and applied to other countries such as India.
e) Lastly, consumers’ decision on using IC is also determined with how they perceive the longevity of the product. This is dependent on the manufacturing processes, type of materials used, geographical context such as its ability to withstand climates in certain regions, how it will be used, and availability of technical assistance provision of spare parts if problems arise (Ekouevi et al., 2012). A lesson learned in the case of India from the NPIC is the consequence of IC that breakdown within a few months leading to the erosion of households’ trust and lower adoption rate (Ekouevi et al., 2012).
Discussion
Technical and market-based approaches in the dissemination and diffusion of cookstoves are often believed to be optimal in ensuring sustainability and success of household energy programs. However, political and institutional approaches for these interventions have altered the landscape for these programs and has been ineffective partially due to low adoption rates of technologies and distortions in the market due to government subsidies (Ekouevi et al., 2012). Solutions such as targeting the technicalities of ICs do not address the complexity of low adoption of sustainable technologies. The NPIC created by the government of India was one example of this endeavor from the government but was discontinued in 2002. This was partly due to dominant underlying assumptions from researchers and institutions on the lack of receptivity for newer technologies based on the beliefs low retention of newer technologies was primarily as function of cost rather than looking at individuals’ willingness to adopt it. The project was also limited in establishing collaborative partnerships with communities reflecting power imbalances and a lack of consideration for local context (Rehman & Malhotra, 2004). Consequently, new stove technology designs were often not suitable for users resulting in a reduction of its continued use. In this instance, there is a need for a systems perspective in program planning and implementation by integrating various socio-cultural approaches to understand social dynamics within communities in rural India. It has been found the choice to adopt alternative technologies are not always on the basis of cost-benefit analysis (Jagadish & Dwivedi, 2018). Various social groups have been found to have diverging adoption pathways due to cultural meanings and perceptions attached to traditional and modern technologies.
Ultimately, users choice and preference are geographically contextual. The diffusion of cookstoves in the rural context is a dynamic process in which people have the capacity to be receptive and adaptive to new knowledge and ways of thinking, provided that it suits their needs and they understand the benefits from using it. For that reason, holistic approaches to sustain technological adoption of cookstoves are needed to ensure its success. Numerous risks are tied to biomass fuel and technology use that are harmful to human health and the environment (Jagadish & Dwivedi, 2018). But the complexity of this issue extend beyond environmental and health concerns. Technological adoption of sustainable cookstoves and energy sources is contingent on the rationale behind peoples decision to adopt and its extrinsic linkages to a vast array of additional influences in the social, economic, political, cultural, geographical, to even the technological (Jagadish & Dwivedi, 2018). Through long-lasting periods of social and environmental learning, certain ideologies and beliefs become embedded into regional social systems affecting how individuals perceive traditional and modern technologies. Therefore, in order to truly understand the barriers of technological adoption, considering the socio-cultural context to improve the well being of the population health is fundamental in tailoring culturally sensitive strategies that can achieve positive outcomes (Jagadish & Dwivedi, 2018). In addition to these nuances, consolidating a broad range of key lessons learned that are common in other countries that have implemented similar household energy programs in the past decades is significant. As it can supplement socio-cultural, political, ecological and economical understandings that give rise to the challenges facing sustainable technological adoptions. These findings reflect a need to tailor novel approaches for programs to integrate in the project design and further necessitate capacity strengthening to achieve development of local assets and infrastructure.
The purpose of drawing in various socio-cultural approaches that bring to light social processes and dynamics embedded in cultural perceptions and perspectives in this paper was intended to destabilize dominant discourses related to biomass. The common themes drawn in utilizing the Cultural Consensus Analysis, Ethnographic Approach, and Community-based System Dynamic Approach was the adaption of these models in facilitating greater inclusion within the community through establishing partnerships within the local regions, enhancing the participation of community members in the planning process of the projects, and creating greater empowerment for individuals to drive the developmental processes themselves. This improves the receptivity of diffusing modern technologies in society with consideration of the local context. It also allows us to appreciate different normative values that challenge the ethics behind how humans should sustain life (Chatti et al., 2017). Understanding these variations in the adoption and use of IC is needed for future consideration of implementing and designing household energy programs that seek to address energy poverty and improve availability and accessibility of cleaner, alternative fuel and technologies.
Conclusions
Almost half of the world’s populations, mainly poor rural households rely on biomass and solid fuels for their everyday energy needs (Kumar et al., 2016). Environmental and human health implications have been linked to the use of biomass. Governments and institutions have responded by implementing household energy programs with the intention to diffuse cleaner, energy-efficient, alternatives to rural households living in poverty. But technological adoption rates have been quite low. A plethora of lessons learned were collected from numerous countries on the implementation these programs. Common factors that contributed to low adoption rates in the programs were characterized by lack of inclusion of key stakeholders, such as community members who are targeted to greatly benefit from these programs. Issues that stem from biomass use such as household air pollution and other communicable diseases are vastly complex and require multisectoral approaches to understanding the factors that encompass this issue. Due to dominant discourses surrounding transitioning from biomass to alternative energy sources, technical and market-based approaches are often believed to be sustainable and are widely taken into consideration in project design and implementation. In spite of that, low adoption rates of ICs reflect a need to consider other factors that influence users decision to utilize newer technologies. Looking at socio-cultural approaches enables decision makers and project designers to draw upon greater nuances in light of the challenges of uptake and retaining new technologies and energy sources.