Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 1 May 2016 launched the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) at Ballia, Uttar Pradesh. It will benefit the poor, especially the women. The scheme aims to provide cooking gas connections to 5 crore below-poverty-line beneficiaries over the next three years.
Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana is an ambitious social welfare scheme of Narendra Modi Government. Under the PM Ujjwala Yojana, the government aims to provide free LPG connections to BPL households in the country. The scheme is aimed at replacing the unclean cooking fuels mostly used in the rural India with the clean and more efficient LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas).
Objectives of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana
Ujjwala Yojana is aimed at providing free LPG connections in the name of women in BPL (Below Poverty Line) households across the country. The government has set a target of 5 crore LPG connections to be distributed to the BPL households across the country under the scheme. Some of the main objectives of the scheme are:
- Empowering women and protecting their health.
- Assisting in cutting short the issue of the air pollution due to the use of fossil fuel.
- Reducing the serious health hazards associated with cooking based on fossil fuels.
- Reducing the number of deaths in India due to unclean cooking fuels, which is about 5 lakh every year in India.
- Preventing young children from a significant number of acute respiratory illnesses caused due to indoor air pollution by burning the fossil fuels.
This is really empowering womens in India. We have to work more aggressively on these kind of campaigns.
This initiative is a result of give it up campaign from where government raised funds by motivating high income group to give up their gas subsidy and that money is used to light 5 crore gas cylinders among below poverty line population of country.