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wood (Sinha, 2001; Mahat, 2004). Women also suffer back problems from carrying
heavy wood loads (40 kg are not usual) on their head as well as the less recognized
threats of rape and beatings (Cecelski 2000, UNDP, 1997). In many cases, uterine
prolapse among rural women in Nepal is attributed to carrying heavy firewood and
similarly women often face a risk of miscarriages with such heavy workload (Earth and
Staphit, 2002; Haile, 1991; UNDP, 1997). A study in Nepal indicated that highest
percentage of infant mortality is associated with ARI, which is mainly caused by indoor
air pollution (Pandey, 2003). Girl children are kept out of school to assist in wood
collection (Clancy, 2000). Water collection for the household has similar impacts. This
has a large negative impact on rural poverty in general, and human poverty in particular
affecting well being of rural households (Ramani, 2004).
This paper analyzes the impacts of energy poverty and its multiple implications on
the livelihood of rural population especially the wellbeing of rural women as they are the
ones most affected by the energy crisis. For this purpose, a theoretical framework is built
up elaborating on capabilities approach of energy poverty and it is applied to the research
findings derived from the case study of rural energy implemented in Kavre district of
Nepal.
2. Relationship between Energy Poverty and Human Development: A
Theoretical Framework
Increased access to affordable energy services, especially for the poorest and most
vulnerable groups in society, is absolutely central to sustainable poverty reduction as well
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as other improvements in education, health, and gender equality set forth in the MDGs
(UNDP, 2007). The macro energy planning often emphasizes on expansion of centralized
energy supply (e.g. large scale hydro power) rather than focusing on expanded access to
better energy services such as fuel for household cooking, which matter most to the poor.
For poorer households affordable, accessible and reliable energy is a key challenge for
sustainable development.
It is thus worth relating energy with poverty deprivation as
energy is considered as one of the basic human needs that have a
crucial role in improving people’s wellbeing (GNESD, 2007). At the
most basic level, energy is needed for cooking food, and space heating
(World bank, 1996). For the world’s poor, the only source of energy
that is generally available and affordable is “traditional biomass,”
including fuel wood, crop residues, and animal wastes (REN 21, 2005).
They are the traditional fuel most popularly used for cooking in rural
areas. Energy services that rely on biomass for cooking cut across numerous sectors
such as health, agriculture, forestry, environment, and improving the lives of women
(Modi, McDade, Lallement and Sagir, 2006).
Low access to better energy services is one aspects of poverty as energy choices
of poor households are influenced by the poverty (Cecelski, 2000a). Energy poverty may
be defined as the “absence of sufficient choice in accessing adequate, affordable, reliable,
quality, safe and environmentally benign energy services to support economic and human
development” (UNDP, 2000). Thus energy poverty reflects low access to better energy
services at one end. However, the deprivations caused by energy scarcity on human
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development are much more significant than the energy poverty itself. Such deprivations
have a larger impact on rural households in general, and women in particular (UNDP,
2004). For instance, poor women spend more time in collecting firewood than those from
higher income groups who can pay for higher quality fuels. Women from poorer
households do not boil the water to drink and eat less cooked food, causing further health
problems. Hence, energy involves an equity dimension as poor women have limited
choices for energy services with multiple implications on their sustainable livelihoods
(Clancy, Skutsch and Batchelor, 2000). In addition, the impacts of biomass energy
deprivations on women range from serious health effects due to indoor pollution and the
heavy workload to lost opportunities for self-improvement and family well-being due to
the restriction on women’s capabilities to participate in other economic and social
activities (Modi, et.al, 2006; Ramani, 2004). This has a large negative impact on rural
poverty in general, and human poverty in particular affecting the well being of rural
households (Ramani, 2004Modi, McDade, Lallement and Sagir, 2006).
Energy in rural areas reflects more human energy than biomass and other sources
of fuel (Cecelski, 2000a). The problem is not lack of biomass energy but lack of women’s
time and labor to manage the household energy. For instance, in rural areas of Nepal
women’s time and labor are more valued that functions for achieving the wellbeing of a
family. Lack of women’s time and their labor requirement severely restricts their
capabilities in other production arenas that lead to their well being. Girls are especially
disadvantaged due to the heavy labor requirement for collecting firewood that restricts
their opportunities for attaining school education (Schultz, 1990).
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Given the existing social mechanism of rural Nepalese society, where women are
often viewed as objects of consumption and services, and not the agents of production,
(while they always do more than men), women’s role in production of energy and in
reproduction of household income through small scale enterprises at household level are
often undermined (Bhattachan, 2001; Cecelski, 1995; Skutsch, 1995). For instance,
women are the main producers and managers of biomass energy in rural areas, while they
have little access in decision making processes in regard to any energy interventions such
as locating biogas plant (Cecelski, 2000b; Skutsch, 1996; Mark, 1995). While women
value their roles in such decisions (agency freedom) to achieve their well being through
such interventions, women’s freedom in achieving such wellbeing is often critical. In
absence of work sharing at household level, women do heavy physical exercise and spend
long working hours in managing the biomass energy that deprives their production and
reproduction capacities affecting their well being (Acharya, 2001; Cecelski, 2000b).
Using biomass as fuel contributes to multiple deprivations: economic, socio-
cultural and ecological. Particularly, the social and cultural deprivations (such as equity,
inequalities) have a major influence on human capabilities especially of women thereby
limiting their rights and opportunities (e.g no time and labour for production and social
activities, no access to decision making) affecting negatively on their well being and
thereby their families (Ramani, 2000; Mahat, 2004; Skutsch, 1994). Hence, using
biomass as exclusive sources of household energy affects women’s freedom to a larger
extent to enjoy their positive state of life.
• Freedom Approach of Poverty
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Despite the increasing focus on alleviation of poverty in MDG, it has often failed
to incorporate the human dimensions of poverty (UNDP, 2006). A Nobel economist
Amartya Sen (1999) contends that poverty is more than having low income and is closely
connected with deprivation of basic capabilities. Linking capabilities with well being,
Sen (1999) claims that individual capabilities are based on substantive freedoms they
enjoy and have a reason to value. Sen explicitly concerns with issues of social justice that
has created inequalities such as gender inequalities and thus focuses on capabilities of
people as the means of well being (Nussbaum, 2003; Robeyin, 2003). Capabilities are
more intrinsic than the extrinsic. Disagreeing with growth as an indicator of life quality,
Sen claims that such growth does not reflect the deprivations of individual that restrict
their capabilities (Nussbaum, 2003). For instance, men and women do not enjoy equal
benefits from development services such as education, which leads to the deprivation of
their basic capabilities. Sen (1992) contends that gender inequalities can be better
reflected by comparing the functioning and capabilities that matter intrinsically than the
means to achieve them such as resources. For instance, women can not fulfill the
household’s demands for the wellbeing of a whole family, unless they are free to engage
in social and economic activities outside home (Sen, 1999).
Supporting to Sen’s view on capabilities, Robeyins (2003) defends that
capabilities are the potential functioning, which are basically doing and beings out of the
freedom they have. All the capabilities together bring the overall freedom that people
have reason to value. Thus capabilities are freedom and functioning are achievement
same like the opportunities and outcome, first being the instrumental and latter being the
constitutive of freedom (Agrawal, Humphries and Robeyins, 2003; Pettit, 2001).
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Human Development Reports in 1996 and 1997 have explicitly mentioned the
capability approach (based on Sen’s assertions on capability) focusing on multiple
dimensions of poverty. Capabilities are ends, and they are reflected not in inputs, but in
human outcomes—in the quality of people’s lives (UNDP, 1997: 103). The
conventionalists measure poverty based on GDI indicators. However, poverty measures
have failed to measure the deprivations of poverty which are more detrimental in
achieving human freedom and human development (Sen, 1999, Ramani, 2004). Thus,
“the capability approach reconciles the notions of absolute and relative poverty, since
relative deprivation in incomes and commodities can lead to an absolute deprivation in
minimum capabilities”(UNDP, 1997: 16).
In this sense, energy poverty represents the absence of some basic capabilities
(poor health condition, low socio-economic opportunities etc.) that functions for overall
wellbeing of the households as presented in the conceptual model.
• Conceptual Model
The chart below presents the conceptual framework of my study indicating how
the use of biomass energy causes multiple deprivations of the rural households affecting
well being and agency freedom and its last impact on human development.
For the world’s poor, the only source of energy that is generally
available and affordable is “traditional biomass,” including fuel wood,
crop residues, and animal wastes (REN 21, 2005). Around 80 percent of
the expenditure on energy services by poor people is on fuel for
cooking.76 Studies show that the majority of the developing world’s
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poor spend 20 percent or more of their monthly income to obtain wood
and charcoal. And this 20 percent figure is biased downward because it
does not reflect the opportunity cost of labor and time dedicated to
fuel wood collection or the health costs of indoor air pollution (REN 21,
2005).
Social Deprivation
Biomass
Energy
Social
deprivatio
n
Economic
deprivatio
n
Ecological
deprivatio
n
Cultural
deprivation
Low
well beingand agency
freedom
Low
well beingfreedom
Low well
being andagency
freedom
Low well
beingfreedom
Human
Development/
Freedom
Human
Developmen
t/FreedomHuman
Development/
Freedom
HumanDevelopment/
Freedom
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Burning biomass indicates the low accessibility to alternative fuels by the poorest
households and thus involves equity concerns, which in turn, contributes to the women’s
drudgery including the heavy workload and their health conditions. As stated earlier,
women and children often suffer from respiratory diseases, eye problems, due to the
domestic air pollution, especially when burning low quality biomass fuel such as
agricultural residue. Similarly, carrying heavy firewood causes numerous health
problems such as miscarriage, chest problems and uterine prolapsed (World, bank, 1996;
Earth and Staphit, 2002; Haile, 1991). In addition, girl children are often withdrawn from
school to work at home for helping their mothers in energy related activities, such as
carrying firewood. These problems are attributed to the social deprivation, which restricts
women’s choices and their capacities for production and reproduction. In addition, this
affects the women’s agency to perform for their well being.
Economic Deprivation
Absence of sufficient and quality energy hinders the growth and efficiency
(UNDP, 2004). It restricts the economic and social opportunities for rural households and
to start any new ventures and energy based enterprises (REN21, 2005). This affects
relative income deprivations and in turn, affects on the capabilities deprivations of many
rural households (Sen, 1999).
Using biomass for energy involves considerable time and labor
for women, which allows limited time and opportunities for economic
and social activities (Skutsch, 1996; Cecelski, 2004, Mahat, 2004). This
adds to the household poverty which, in turn, limits access to better
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energy services limiting the production and reproduction capacities of
women and the production and income opportunities of HHS.
Ecological deprivation
Using biomass for energy causes depletion of the forest resources, which has a
negative impact on its inhabitants through the extinction of natural species due to the
change in climate (Najam and Cleveland, 2003). Since forests are habitats for large
number of species, their degradation directly affects the loss of biodiversity. This in turn,
affects the local community especially women who rely on resources from environment
for their daily needs (OECD, 2002; Mahat, 2004). Women are generally more vulnerable
to environmental hazards than men, due to closer exposure to risks (e.g. indoor air
pollution, contaminated water, long distances to collect water and fuel) (Cecelski, 2004;
Pearce, 2005). In addition, use of biomass from farm to fire is not only a threat to
environment but also reduces the farm productivity due to the degradation of soil quality
(Thapa, 1996; Barnes, 2005). The degradation of soil quality is one of the major causes of
food insecurity (OECD, 2002). Rural populations in poor countries pay the highest price
for environmental degradation, as their livelihoods depend on the goods and services
from the ecosystems (e.g. generation of water, wood and non-wood forest products, fuel,
cycling of nutrients, replenishment of soil fertility, prevention of erosion, breaking down
of wastes and pollutants, carbon sequestration and storage, recreation, etc) (Koziell and
McNeil, 2002).
Such deprivation restricts production opportunities of rural households and adds
to human poverty especially of women’s agency to achieve the well being.
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Cultural Deprivation
Culture refers to the collective identity of group of people to follow a way of life
of its choice. Thus cultural freedom protects not only the group but also the rights of
every individual within it (Matilla and Sepilla, 2000). For instance, in rural areas of
Nepal, women have very close link with forest system as a survival strategy.
Given the existing patriarchal culture of Nepalese society, women are fully
responsible of household chores such as carrying firewood, fetching water, cooking, and
caring of children (Acharya, 1989; Bhattacharya, 2001). Use of biomass adds work
burden of women as women are fully responsible for collecting and managing biomass
for household energy. However, women have less access in decision making processes in
regard to any energy interventions as stated earlier. It restricts women’s agency to
function well towards their well being both because they have less opportunities with the
cultural impositions and because their values are undermined (Rajavi, 1999). It is thus
worth mentioning that capabilities and the opportunities serve as basic functioning for
human development and human freedom as mentioned by Sen (1999).
5. Research Methodology
5.1 Research Design
My present research builds on my PhD data which included extensive field research
for five months utilizing both quantitative and qualitative techniques. My purpose of
collecting new data is to obtain additional information on social and cultural deprivations
with biomass energy resources, analyze biomass energy policies at national, and regional
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level and to come up with appropriate policy strategies in relation to biomass energy
options.
The fieldwork was undertaken in Kavre district in 2008 for about two months
between Mid July to Mid September. Two VDCs namely Mangaltar (27.35 km from
district headquarter) and Katunjebeshi (22.53 km from district headquarter) were selected as
a base to continue my research that was taken from PhD fieldwork. Participants were
selected purposively to accommodate the research needs as the key informant interviews
were the major tools of my research. At village level the participants were identified by
discussing with some key people such as local health workers, village heads and other
village authorities who can provide some general information on the socio-economic
backgrounds of participants. Based on their information and through the personal
observations during the field visits, the participants (mostly women) were selected for
interviews who were found to be the key resource persons for my research. While
selecting these participants, gender, ethnicity, and class were taken into account.
At regional and national level, the participants were the representatives of different
institutions working in energy related fields that included implementing agencies, donors,
and the government authorities at the top. Semi structured interviews were conducted
with policy makers at regional (district) and national level and thus the biases on
information were checked in both ways.
One of the major limitations of my field research reflects the time constraints of
participants since the local women were always occupied with one or the other activities. It
was hard to catch up with women’s time and I had to be very flexible to be accommodated
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according to their convenience. In addition, it was a heavy agricultural season and locating
the participants for my research was a difficult task.
5.2 Demographic Characteristics of the district population
The total population of Kavre district is 333,181 and the average household size is
5.3 (NRA, 1997). The population in the district is a mix of different ethnic groups
including Brahmin/Chhetri, Newar, Gurung, Tamang, Tharu, Magar, Kami, Damai and
Sarki, Bhojpuri, and Limbu. There exist considerable differences in traditions and the
culture of the different ethnic communities on women’s mobility, marriage options, and
access to resources and social status (ADB, 1999). Gender based exclusions are in terms of
education, health, social, economic and political opportunities. Women from Indo-Aryan
groups (such as Brahmin and Chhetri) are especially disadvantaged as compared to low
caste (Damai, and Kami) and other ethnic groups (Tamang, Gurung and Rai) and Newar
(ancient ethnic group) (Acharya, 1997; Bhattachan, 2001).
Agriculture is the primary occupation of the district population. People are also
engaged in fishing activities, sales services and as production laborers. The total
economically active population (EAP) in the district is 152,765 of which 73,234 are
female. EAP in Nepal stands for the population group aged above 10 years who are
engaged in any kind of production activities (CBS, 1999). The energy consumption
pattern in Kavre district is presented in Table 1.
Table 1: Energy Consumption Pattern in Kavre District
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Source: REDP, 2006
In terms of renewable energy systems, only one percent of total energy consumption is
derived from electricity. Out of 87 VDCs in the district, only some wards of 39 VDCs are
connected to the national grid. Firewood provides 85 percent of the total energy
consumption in Kavre.
6. Research Findings
6.1 Decision Making Structure of Sampling Households
It was observed
during the field visit that
men were often the
decision makers at
household and
community level as Agrawal (2001) also observed. However, there was some difference
among the higher caste and lower caste people regarding the household decisions.
Among higher caste, it was mainly men who decide on their own, whereas among lower
Energy Resources Percentage of
Consumption
Firewood 85 %
Agricultural residue 9 %
Petroleum 5 %
Electricity 1 %
Total 100 %
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caste people the men decide jointly with their wives and they also participate actively on
the decisions.
Table 2 illustrates the decision making status at household level. Men were the
dominant decision makers in household activities such as holding and managing crop and
livestock income and planting fodder trees.
Table 2: Decision-Making Structure of Sampled Households
(Percentage of respondents)
S
Source: Field Survey, 2002
Among the different activities, men’s domination in managing the crop income
was the highest as this is the largest share of family income. It was observed that women
were the sole decision makers in case of women headed households. Both men and
women were largely involved in household decision making activities among Tamang
Decision Activities Holding andmanaging cropincome:
Holding and managinglivestock income:
Decision onPlanting fodder
trees
Women
Men
Both
Total
21.6
77.0
1.4
100
24.2
60.5
15.3
100
19.5
53.2
27.3
100
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ethnic group as compared to Brahmin community. This indicates that higher caste women
are more deprived for their well being as compared to the low ethnic group.
6.2 Deprivations with Energy Poverty
• Social Deprivation
Problems in collecting and using firewood
As in many developing countries, the local women in rural areas of Nepal
primarily depend on biomass (mainly firewood) for fulfilling household energy
requirements. I observed that only around 30 percent of households have access to
technologies like biogas and improved stoves. Local women experienced different kinds
of problems in managing firewood resources and in cooking with biomass resources.
Table 3 below presents the problems related to women’s workload in collecting
and cooking with firewood at household level. Women were more concerned on their
work load regarding the collection of firewood, as it consumed long time to walk and to
look for the firewood. As stated earlier, women had spent almost a day to collect a bunch
of firewood. Their worries were also on catching up by the owners while stealing the
firewood from the private forest. Besides this, women were overwhelmingly concerned
about the smokes caused by biomass burning that affected their health in different ways
(Table 3).
Table 3: Problems in Collecting and Cooking with Firewood
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(Percentages of Cases)
Source: Personal Observation, 2008
The heavy work on cleaning utensils and houses caused by burning firewood has
been one of the major problems for women in rural villages of Kavre. It took a
considerable time for them in cleaning the houses, dishes and linens as they become
dirty frequently while cooking with firewood and other biomass resources.
With availability of diesel mills and micro hydro mills, women’s work load was
reduced to some extent as they did not have to use their labor (human energy) in
processing the agricultural product. However, in rural areas of Nepal, the major
problem with household energy is related with household cooking and heating, which
is the basic for living. Women had spent a considerable time and energy both for
collecting and cooking with firewood, while bearing enormous losses, discomforts,
and pains as indicated in the table above. As women were always occupied with
household chores including the management of household energy resources, they
have very little time for other economic and social activities that could enable them to
Problems in Collecting
Firewood% of Cases Problems in
Cooking with
Firewood
% of Cases
Long distance to walk
No time to go to forest
Lack of firewood
(long time to collect)
Risky (falling down from
trees, paying penalties)
Costly to buy
Other
86.2
34.5
48.3
34.5
15.5
13.8
More smoke
Dirty utensils
Dirty house
Hard to blow
Eye irritation
Long time to cook
High heat during
summer
98.6
82.5
57.3
28.0
26.6
4.2
2.8
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not very much identified by the women themselves due to their unawareness about the
association of the problem. The health personnel in local area identified such problems.
• Cultural Deprivation
Gender Roles in Household Energy Management
It was found that women were solely responsible in managing the energy resources in
most cases, whether biomass or other indigenous fuels. Only in some cases with Tamang
households, were men also involved in collecting firewood and in processing grains.
Although some men in Tamang community shared this work, women took the
major responsibility for collecting and managing the firewood for cooking (Table 4).
Men especially from Brahmin community were however, involved in cutting trees as
women were considered not to be strong for this job.
Table 4: Gender Roles in Household Energy management(Percentage of Respondents)
Who cuts down
Trees?
Who collects fire
wood ?
Who stores it?
Women
Men
Both
35
44
21
65
5
30
71
3
26
Total 100 100 100
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Source: Personal Observation, 2008
I observed that in Brahmin/Chhetri communities, men cut the trees most of the
time. Among Tamang / Rai, both men and women were involved in cutting trees, though
men were more involved in such activities. Among low caste people like Kami and Sarki,
both men and women were involved in cutting trees.
However, it was observed that in most of the cases it was women who collected
and stored the firewood. Young girls were equally involved in collecting firewood, while
young boys would spend their time roaming around the village. In a focus group
discussion, a Tamang woman mentioned that the men of the household would also go to
collect the firewood, if they had a friend to play cards with in the forest.
During the field observation, it was noticed that women’s workload remained
heavy even with the availability of infrastructures such as road network and electricity.
My research villages located in the mid hill areas of Nepal features a huge work burden
for women for collecting firewood in order to meet cooking and heating needs. Since the
houses made of mud and stones would get very cold during the winter season, it was
impossible for the local people to remain in the house without using firewood for heating
the houses. Apart from other household chores, collecting and cooking with firewood
involved a heavy work burden especially for women.
Gender roles in energy related activities among different ethnicities are depicted
in Tables 5. Among Brahmin/Chhetri, women and girls were highly involved in cooking
meals, preparing snacks, grinding grains, and collecting firewood. This means that
women and girl children are more susceptible to the indoor air pollution. For processing
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activities, both women and girls were involved in rice hulling, while both boys and girls
and women were involved in going to the mills with girls playing the strongest role.
Table 5: Involvement in Household Energy Activities by Gender and Ethnicity Notes: W = women, M = men, G = Girl, B = Boy,
Notes** = high involvement, * = low involvement, o = no involvement
Source: Field Survey 2002.
Since there was a diesel mill in the village the women did not have to be involved
much in hulling activities, but were very involved in grinding due to the fact that they
preferred to use the flour ground from janto and ghatta (water mill ), because it is tastier
than that processed by the power or diesel mill. However, it was observed that women
and girls were solely involved in processing activities especially among high caste Hindu
families, where there were no mills.
Among Tamang / Rai, women and girls were heavily involved in cooking meals and
snacks and in collecting firewood. Men also shared the cooking activities occasionally,
but the boys were never around to do their share of this work. Among the low caste
Activities Brahmin/Chhetri Tamang / Rai Kami/Damai
W M G B W M G B W M G B
Cooking meal
Preparing snacks
Rice hulling
Grinding grains
Collectingfirewood
Going to the mills
**
**
*
**
**
*
o
o
o
o
o
o
**
**
*
**
**
**
o
o
o
o
o
*
**
**
*
**
**
*
*
*
o
o
o
o
**
**
o
*
**
*
o
o
o
o
o
o
**
**
*
**
**
*
*
*
*
*
o
o
**
**
*
*
**
**
*
*
o
o
o
*
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households, women and girls were highly involved in cooking and grinding but were less
involved in hulling. In this group, the men and also the boys shared both cooking and
processing tasks. Among the low caste and Tamang ethnic group, sharing of work
between males and females was well practiced.
Gendered Access to and Control over Energy Resources and Technologies
Rural women had access to all kinds of energy resources such as firewood, diesel
and power mills, and also to alternative cooking technologies such as biogas stoves and
improved stoves available at the household and community level. Although, only a
limited percentage of households owned AETs such as biogas plants, ICS, and the solar
photovoltaic systems that created a large socio-economic gap within a small community.
In addition, women had no or limited control over AETs. Women were rarely trained for
designing stoves and for any repair activities and neither for the use and better
implications of AETs. They often had to rely on the technicians or other male members
for any small repairs, who would not often be around that discouraged them to adopt such
technologies. Men often were trained in constructing stoves and in using the biogas
plants, who rarely shared the skill to their women in the house.
From the focused group discussions, it was found out that, the highest percentage
of respondents collected firewood from their own and community forests. A large
percentage of respondents also admitted that they stole the firewood from private forests
far from the village, because they did not have their own forest while a few of them
bought the firewood from private forests.
Both men and women then have access to firewood resources, and women are
well represented in community forest groups. Women also have a say in firewood
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management, collection and forest clearance. However, men were the major decision
makers in determining whether or not to sell firewood from the forests and managing the
community income. I also observed that women in the project area had access to
technology like electricity, biogas stoves, solar lighting and improved stoves and many
used such technology, although they had no control over it, having no knowledge of
repair and maintenance work. This indicates that there was a shift in control over
resources with availability of technologies.
Gendered well being and participation
In the rural areas of Nepal, people especially women are deprived of well being and
opportunities (e.g. basic, education, health, food). For instance, the girl children are allowed
to go to school only if they finish housework and they are dropped off from school if they
had to travel far from the villages to achieve basic education (Agrawal, 2001). For instance,
only the few girls from richer households had gone to the adjacent villages to continue their
higher secondary education and the college education was very rare. Similarly, food habits of
women are changed in many circumstances. For instance, men eat first and get enough good
food and women eat later after men and they get inadequate food and not the same food in
many cases. They get leftovers and not all varieties of food as they are almost consumed by
the previous eaters. Women often refuse to re cook even if there is not enough food left for
them (they feel tired of cooking) and they remain hungry whole day while spending the same
energy for household chores. This has caused numerous health problems such as ulcer, and
gastric. A woman interviewed mentioned that “our elders especially father-in-law, brother-in
laws eat first and we women eat later all the leftovers. We do not care if we have enough or not”
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( personal interview, 2008 ). The local women expressed that they have very little time and
opportunity for education and health care and for participating in other economic and social
activities.
Similarly, women have a little power to decide on their own if they want to participate in
the activities outside home. It was observed in the villages that women hardly participated in
the village level meetings organized for different activities such as rural energy program, and
road building program. Although women were the active contributors in constructing micro
hydro canals, and raising and mobilizing saving funds, their participation in community and
village level decisions was nominal. Men were the major decision makers at village level as
also observed by Agrawal (2001). A woman mentioned that “we do not have time to
participate in such meetings and we also have a little understandings of the subjects matter ”.
On the other hand, some other women mentioned that “we are not encouraged by the family
members to participate in such meetings” (Personal interview, 2008). It was a mix of ideas
and thoughts about their participation. However, it was observed that at village level, women
have active participation in community forestry program and to manage and preserve the
forest for saving the village environment. They participated in village level meetings and
share the ideas with male members in the forest committee, although their voices would
rarely been listened by the male members. However, women hardly have time and
opportunities to participate in other economic and social activities that could enable them to
be empowered economically as well as socially. In some cases, women were involved in cash
crops’ and livestock production at personal level and make their personal income by selling
those products. However, they still use the income for the welfare of the family, although
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such incomes help their economic empowerment and raise their self esteem for the well
being of the whole family.
• Economic deprivation
Although there were some opportunities in the village level with availability of
micro hydro plants, that provided opportunities for men and especially women to
participate in some cottage activities such as soap making, incense making, they were at
very basic level. In some villages the micro hydro canal was a good source of irrigation
especially for vegetable production. For instance, garlic production was done at
commercial level in one of the villages that helped to increase the household income. The
income from garlic production was mainly owned by the women but used for the welfare
of the family. Some men were employed in micro hydro mills thus providing
employment at village level.
However, majority of the households rely on traditional fuel like firewood, there
were little opportunities for women to participate in income generating activities. Micro
hydro plants were basically used for lighting purposes and were used for milling
activities in only a few villages. The basic source of energy was the firewood in almost
all the villages and women were mainly involved in managing such firewood resources
having little or no time and opportunities for any economic activities. A few households
who used the biogas stoves for cooking were not properly aware of their economic
potential such as making compost out of the slurry that could be utilized as fertilizer to
have increased agricultural production. There was very little extension activities to make
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aware especially to women on the proper use and implications of the technologies so as
to use the technologies towards their full potential and to ensure the economic gain.
In addition there were no any activities at village level in absence of power supply
and also other services such as market, and credit so as to have integrated channel for
increasing the household income for rural population.
7. Conclusion
Analyzing above indicates that using biomass as an exclusive source of energy
deprives the human capabilities especially of women in the existing cultural and social
context. There were no alternative options for biomass energy in the villages. Even those
households who used biogas stoves for cooking could not fully rely on such cooking.
These households still needed to use firewood for livestock feeding and during rituals and
festivals. In addition, burning firewood inside the house was essential during winter
season to keep the house warm. As women were solely responsible to produce and
manage the biomass energy, they are the ones affected by numerous health problems as
indicated earlier, and the heavy workload providing them little opportunities to be
involved in other economic and social activities. It limited their capacities for production
and reproduction. It was observed that burning low quality firewood produced higher
level of domestic air pollution causing different kind of health problems especially to
women and children who spent their most of the time in the house. In addition, women
were rarely involved in the decision making processes in regard to any energy
interventions such as locating hydro plants and biogas plants that lowered down their self
esteem. In absence of proper extension services including the training to women on use
and implications of technologies, they were more dependent on men to use the AETs.
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This hindered the women’s capabilities to use these technologies that discouraged them
for adopting the same. It was also observed that if men share the household activities
especially the energy related activities such as collecting firewood, women will have
more time for other social and economic activities, which will help to improve their well
being. Given the social and cultural circumstances in regard to use of biomass energy and
other energy interventions, women have little choices and opportunities to improve their
wellbeing and thereby their families.
While alternative technologies can have potential for reducing the drudgery and
increasing the income of a household, they have not been able to reach to the larger
section of the society. This situation has created even more inequalities in the villages
creating a large socio-economic gap within a small community. Unless and until the
technologies are designed for pro poor and subsidies are channeled accordingly, majority
of the poor remain out of reach with such technologies.
In addition, the AETs like solar plant, micro-hydro power have only been used for
basic lighting and no other potentials have been explored that could help to utilize the
local resources such as women’s knowledge and skill and the local produce. AETs have
large potentials to initiate home based enterprises such as dairy production and
handicrafts, where women can have a good access, which could empower women both
socially as well as economically.
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