Ujjwala Scheme

Subject: Welfare schemes

Context: The retirement of J&K MPs saw praise for Ujjawala scheme in the J&K.

Concept:

Addition of 10 million beneficiaries during the year to the government’s flagship scheme was announced during the budget 2021-22.
As on January 31, about 83 million LPG connections have been given under the scheme, which has helped the government increase the all-India LPG coverage to 99.5 per cent.
The scheme is significant as its database is being used to promote DBT in other schemes as well.
Under the Pradhan MantriGaribKalyan package during the pandemic, free LPG cylinders were given to all Ujjwala scheme beneficiaries for three months.

About Ujjwala scheme:

It envisages the distribution of 50 million LPG connections to women below the poverty line and was launched in 2016, which was later increased to 8 crores by 2019 (Achieved).
Under it a deposit-free LPG connection is given to eligible beneficiaries with financial assistance of Rs 1,600 per connection by the Centre.
It is a scheme of Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas.

It aims at:

Empowering women and protecting their health by reducing serious health hazards associated with cooking based on fossil fuel.
Reducing the number of deaths in India due to unclean cooking fuel.
Preventing young children from significant number of acute respiratory illnesses caused due to indoor air pollution by burning the fossil fuel.