Women led cleaner cooking initiative, Odisha

Women led cleaner cooking initiative, Odisha

This project aims to have distributed, by the end of 2026, 500,000 high-efficiency cookstoves in rural and semi-urban households who use traditional, unimproved three-stone cookstoves or open fires for cooking purposes. These Improved Cookstoves (ICS) will benefit 2 million community members through safer, sustainable cooking combined with the economic opportunities from reduced fuel consumption. ICSs are manufactured locally, have a lifespan of 7 years and thermal efficiency of around 38%. The project reduces fuel wood usage, carbon emissions, and indoor air pollution compared to conventional cookstoves. In terms of notable social benefits, it significantly decreases the time women spend collecting fuel wood and decreases the risk of pulmonary health diseases in the households, especially for children.