Time for Less-smoke Chulhas

On World Environment Day,India's leading newspaper, Times of India devoted its edition to examining various issues and initiatives around environment. Noting that polluting chulhas are finally finding alternatives in efficient, less-smoke chulhas that reduce health and environmental risks, the Times of India reported on the efforts by Shell Foundation and Envirofit to make a difference through sustained campaigns in South India and Karnataka.

The report quotes Shell Foundation's Room to Breathe Campaign head, Simon Bishop, saying, "A new impetus is required to get the government and agencies to spread awareness on the ill-effects of firewood-inefficient stoves"

The Times of India story, "Use Less-Smoke Chulhas" says: "Which chulha would you prefer this Environment Day? Firewood chulhas are on their way out. After decades of using inefficient chulhas that lead to indoor air pollution (IAP), now the market has some models of efficient, less-smoke chulhas that can minimize the health and environmental risks.

IAP is the kitchen fume released by the burning of wood and biomass. Black carbon, a major environmental issue, is also the main component of soot, a product of incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, the burning of biomass in rural cook stoves. However, now villagers have an option. The firewood consumption can be cut by 80% in case of fuel-efficient stoves.

“We are working in all four southern states. In Karnataka, we are in Gulbarga, Bidar, Chamarajnagar etc. Shell Foundation and Envirofit are particularly doing a lot of awareness activities in Shimoga. We have sold 1.20 lakh stoves already. So it’s clear that people are interested. But the user is usually the woman in the house but decision maker is the man. They often fail to understand what kind of health impacts the woman is facing,” says Envirofit MD Harish Anchan.

Various options like micro-finance partners are being used to make it easily affordable for villagers. The price range is around Rs 850 to Rs 2,500 for single and double pot stoves.

According to Simon Bishop who is leading the IAP campaign of Shell Foundation, internationally the campaign against IAP through efficient cooking stoves will pick up as it is one of the main ways to deal with carbon emissions.

Several organizations have already prepared a draft report on the initiative for development and deployment of cook stoves and action plan will be submitted to the ministry of new and renewable energy. “A lot of government resources had gone into the National Programme on Improved Cookstoves between 1985 and 2004 but the results were mixed. A new impetus is required to get the government and agencies to spread awareness on the ill-effects of firewood-inefficient stoves,” he said. 

Shimoga's Village Health Workers Campaign on Indoor Air Pollution

In a pathbreaking initiative, Shell Foundation today joined hands with village level health workers, the Anganwadi workers, in the Shikaripur Taluk of Shimoga district to spread awareness on the dangers of smoke in the kitchen and propagate the adoption of improved cook stoves. The Anganwadi system is managed by Anganwadi workers from the community who are trained in health, nutrition and child-care. She is in-charge of an Anganwadi, which covers a population of 1000. A group of Anganwadis is supervised and guided by a Child Development Projects Officer (CDPO). There are about 300 such workers in the Shikaripur Taluk who report to the Taluk Health Officer and CDPO.

Over the past two days, nearly 100 anganwadi workers have been trained to take the IAP campaign to over a 100 villages of Shikaripur Taluk, effectively covering 100,000 people over the next one month. Each Anganwadi worker has a coverage of around one thousand people.

Says Simon Bishop, Head of Policy and Communications, Shell Foundation, "More than 400,000 people in India die each year from toxic fumes inhaled while cooking on open fires - yet most affected households don't even realise the smoke is bad for them. Furthermore, few people realise so-called 'Improved Cook stoves' can dramatically
reduce fumes. They also use at least 40% less wood, which means people can either save money on fuel or save time collecting it. We are delighted to be partnering with the District Administration - and its Anganwadi workers - to raise awareness about smoke and how it can best be tackled."

The launch of the campaign brings together efforts that have included support from the Karnataka Chief Minister's Office, various ministries of the state government, the district authorities, the Zilla Parishad and the Community health officers. Probably for the first time ever, we have had the Anganwadi system, the Community Health Officers, the DC’s office, the Zilla Parishad, the State Ministries,

The campaign conceived and initiated by the Shell Foundation is being run with support from stove manufacturers Envirofit and SELCO who are training and providing stoves for demonstrations.

This route to market is expected to provide yet another avenue for category education as well as outreach for adoption of stoves.


Based on the results of the current phase, the campaign can be extended to all the 2000 anganwadi workers in Shimoga district. The first batch of 100 anganwadi workers were picked by the CDPO in the taluk to launch the exercise.

Workers were trained in batches of 50 on the health issues of indoor air pollution and the formats of communicating the issue to village people.

Thereafter, they were also trained in stove demonstrations. The angawadi workers would now take the campaign on their own to their villages and provide the campaign grassroot outreach.

This is part of the Shell Foundation's wider 'Room to Breathe' campaign, which aims to save lives, improve livelihoods and reduce climate change emissions by tackling kitchen smoke.