This is the story about Smt. Muni Devi, a 50 years old woman is living in Rokedega village. Rokedega is remote village surrounded by forest and mountain. People of this village are mostly dependent on forest and agriculture produce. They use to have earthen chulha for their cooking and have to collect fire wood from forest and cow dung in a daily basis. The major problem with traditional Chulha (oven) is smoke inside the house created by burning wood, dung and crop waste as it requires lot of woods for cooking. It often causes acute respiratory, ear, and eye infections. While using she was feeling breathlessness, chest discomfort, and headaches but had no option for her to take any alternative. One day she came to know about smoke less chulha in a community meeting through Agrarian Prosperity Program and made a request along with other community women. Now on receiving the smokeless chulha, she was so delighted to have the advantages like: -
- Conservation of Firewood
- Provides smoke free hygienic cooking atmosphere
- Reductions in Health hazards
- Reductions in cooking time
- Helps avoid deforestation
The installation of smokeless chulha was innovations introduced to enable rural people of Daupani. The village women usually spent about 6 hours everyday in collecting firewood (for cooking and for selling), which could be reduced by introducing some improvisations. A majority of villagers usually cook on a two brick Chulha (earthen burner), which over a period of time is responsible for lung disease and blurred vision. The smokeless chulha technology (through APP project it has been provided to the community members at a cost of INR 2000 with beneficiary contribution of INR 100) has contributed to the villagers using less firewood, besides having salutary effects on their health and eyesight. More importantly, the time saved can be utilized by them towards increasing their economic gains. At present people under this project are more or less dependent on the forest for income and use. In case of continuing with the traditional oven for few more years will further reduce the vegetative cover in the degraded rocky hillocks and also deteriorate health of the women and children to a great extent
On asking she shared: - I use to go to the forest for collection of fire woods, cow dung, which consume a lot of time. Also while cooking my house was full of smoke like others in our village, but since I used the smoke less chulha, I am feeling healthy as there is no smoke at all and I like it very much as I can cook rice with one or two wood, where I can save my wood, my time of collecting wood from forest, spending in other works. So thank you very much to APP for giving such materials.
