Biomass cookstoves and solar lighting improve the health of women and are creating business models that empower them
Around the world three billion people have no access to modern cooking fuels. They depend mostly on direct burning of solid biomass for cooking and heating. The smoke from these rudimentary stoves causes some four million deaths annually, destroys millions of tonnes of crops and leads to global warming and large-scale regional climate change.
In India, 400 million people, of which 90 per cent are women, are exposed to indoor air pollution from inefficient cookstoves. This results in respiratory, pulmonary and vision problems.
In addition, inefficient cookstoves mean that women spend five to eight hours per day on cooking activities, 20 per cent of that time collecting fuel. This is time that could be spent on educational or other activities. Searching for fuel also puts women and children at risk of sexual violence.
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