Under the cooking pot: the political economy of the domestic fuel crisis in rural South Asia
Agarwal, B.
IDS Bulletin 18(1): 11-22
1987
ISSN/ISBN: 0265-5012 DOI: 10.1111/j.1759-5436.1987.mp18001003.xDocument Number: 342679
The paper compiles a range of survey evidence, chiefly from India, to describe the increasing severity of the biomass shortage. The main analytical concerns of the paper are, first, to examine the linkages between domestic fuel shortage, poverty, and socioeconomic inequality and, secondly, critically to assess the design and operation of programmes introduced to alleviate the biomass crisis. The success of grassroots movements in developing effective poverty-focused responses to biomass scarcity and environmental degradation is contrasted with the government programmes whose top-down design and implementation procedures are identified as critical reasons for their relative failure to benefit the poor despite their stated objectives. Failure of social forestry and other biomass-related programmes to benefit the poor are considered to result from a development strategy which reflects commercial needs and which fails to take account of the needs of the poor.