Indian Women Bearing the Cost of the Global Fuel Crisis

At 8:15 PM, 30-year-old Dolly Devi sits on the floor of New Delhi railway station, waiting for the Vaishali Express that will take her back to Begusarai, a district in Bihar. She waits alongside hundreds of migrant workers for overnight trains departing from the Indian capital to take them back to small towns and villages across the country. After months of struggling with rising cooking gas prices, Dolly has decided to leave Delhi for now. 'We can’t afford it anymore,' she told FairPlanet. 'We will return when gas becomes cheaper.'

For two months, Dolly had been cooking meals on a small earthen stove using biomass and firewood inside her settlement. The smoke filled the lanes and seeped into neighbouring homes. Her landlord eventually asked her to stop. Like Dolly, thousands of migrant workers are finding even the basic act of cooking a daily struggle because of a war unfolding thousands of kilometres away. Rising fuel prices and shortages are forcing many poor households to bear the consequences of a global crisis they had no role in creating. 

As conflict in West Asia disrupts global supply routes, prices in India have risen sharply and energy supplies across the world have come under pressure. India depends heavily on imported Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), much of which comes from West Asia. Women are among the worst affected, as many are being pushed back to wood-fired cooking and harmful indoor smoke exposure.

Energy Poverty in Urban India

For migrants without formal housing, these shortages are severe. According to Professor Donthi Narasimha Reddy, a public policy expert and environmental researcher, crises like these hit the urban poor the hardest. 'For the urban poor, obtaining an LPG connection is entirely contingent on owning a home and holding a permanent address,' he explained. Those living in rented settlements often struggle to secure legal connections and are pushed towards expensive black-market systems instead.

In Mumbai’s Ambujwadi settlement, 26-year-old Rehana Nazim Shaikh, a migrant from Uttar Pradesh, does not have a formal LPG connection in her name. Instead, she relies on the black market, where she gets her cylinder refilled at a nearby gas station every month. But now, the empty cylinder lies unused in the corner of her home. In an interview with FairPlanet, she said that before the war, a refill cost around ₹1,000, but it has now risen to nearly ₹4,000 (around €42), more than the ₹3,000 (around €32) monthly rent she paid for her home in the settlement. 'How can we spend so much money just on fuel?' she asks.

Smoke-Filled Homes, Rising Health Risks

According to the 2019 Global Burden of Disease study, household air pollution caused by cooking with solid fuels such as wood, coal or dung is linked to around 600,000 deaths annually in India. Women and children in low-income households remain among the most exposed to harmful indoor smoke. 

'A few years ago, I had tuberculosis and recovered from it. But now, because of the smoke, there is always fear that the illness or other breathing problems could return. LPG cylinders have become too expensive, so we are forced to depend on firewood,' Rehana told FairPlanet. Women like Rehana are aware of the health risks caused by smoke-filled kitchens, but with LPG becoming unaffordable, many say they have little choice but to continue using firewood. Professor Reddy warns that returning to traditional fuels in urban settlements increases smoke exposure and fire risks for women.

Since February, the Indian government has taken several short-term steps to ease the energy crisis. To manage the shortage, India has been trying to secure more fuel supplies from countries such as Russia. In some cities, households with access to piped gas are being encouraged to use it instead of LPG so that more cylinders remain available for families that depend on them. The government has also restricted commercial use of LPG to prioritise household cooking needs.

Why LPG Access Is No Longer Enough

However, for many women in Ambujwadi, the fuel crisis is already changing everyday life. Khalikun Nisa, a mother of three, says the ongoing shortages and rising prices have left her anxious. Although she has a formal LPG connection, getting a refill has become difficult. 'She said that cylinders are either unavailable, delayed for weeks, or diverted into informal markets where they are sold at far higher prices. Despite booking a refill in advance and waiting in long queues, I returned home empty-handed.' After repeated failed attempts, she is losing hope. 'I cook rotis, make tea, and all my daily work happens amid smoke now. The heat burns my eyes, and it affects my throat and chest. Earlier I somehow managed LPG, but now I am forced to cook on firewood,' she says.

Middle-class households often have dual-cylinder LPG connections, allowing them to keep a spare cylinder at home while waiting for refills. Whereas low-income families like Khalikun Nisa’s, by contrast, usually rely on a single cylinder, meaning even short supply disruptions can leave them without any cooking fuel at all.

As of early 2025, the Indian government has provided more than 10.33 crore (about 103.3 million) LPG connections to women from below-poverty-line households under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (UJJWALA) subsidy scheme. Launched in 2016, the scheme aimed to help families move away from firewood and coal towards cleaner cooking fuel, reducing women’s exposure to harmful indoor air pollution. For many, it provided access to a less polluting cooking fuel for the first time, according to the Indian government.

But now, as LPG prices rise and refills become unaffordable, many families are being pushed back to traditional fuels once again. Narasimha Reddy argues that subsidising LPG alone is not enough. He points out: ‘Clean cooking access must be linked to housing, stable livelihoods, and stronger coordination between local and national governments, because fuel insecurity is deeply tied to urban poverty itself.”’

Choosing Between Hunger and Smoke

Some of the poorest urban households are burning waste materials such as plastic packaging and debris as alternative cooking fuels, exposing families to toxic fumes. Haseena Bano has also been forced to return to firewood for cooking. In households like hers, cooking is largely considered a woman’s responsibility, which means women must now take on the additional labour of collecting wood. According to the Clean Cooking Alliance, women in India spend an average of 374 hours every year gathering firewood.

'Gas prices have increased so much. Prices in informal black markets have climbed sharply, from around ₹100 (around €1) per kilo to nearly ₹400 (around €4),' said Bano. She now collects firewood from a forest patch near the settlement. 'It feels like we will have to leave this place and return to the village,' she adds. Rising fuel costs and shrinking livelihoods are triggering reverse migration.

While alternatives such as electric cooking exist, they remain out of reach for many poor households that lack reliable electricity, stable housing, or affordable connections. Experts warn that oil prices are likely to rise further, increasing pressure on energy-importing countries such as India. While the Ujjwala scheme remains an important intervention for reducing women’s exposure to indoor smoke, its long-term success may rely on whether poor families can continue to afford LPG refills.The current crisis could become a turning point in how India approaches clean cooking access. Rather than focusing on fuel alone, future clean cooking policies must address the barriers low-income families face. Linking affordable energy with secure housing and reliable electricity, will help families withstand future fuel shocks without being pushed back into smoke-filled kitchens. 

For now, as the Vaishali Express prepares to leave Delhi, Dolly Devi gathers her bags and boards the crowded train back to Bihar, leaving behind a city that has become increasingly difficult to survive in.