Inequalities in LPG and electricity consumption in India : The role of caste, tribe, and religion
Abstract
This paper examines the role of caste, tribe, and religion in determining energy inequality in India. We provide evidence by using the National Sample Survey Organisation data from the 68th round (2011–12) of 87,753 households. We estimate the inequalities in access to Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) and electricity usage by the households belonging to the three major disadvantaged groups in India, viz., the scheduled castes, the scheduled tribes, and the Muslims. The results of our empirical analysis suggest that, after controlling for the determinants which impinge on the households’ microeconomic demand and regional supply characteristics, the households belonging to the scheduled tribe and scheduled caste communities do have significantly poorer access to LPG and electricity usage as compared to the upper caste households. The decomposition analysis of average differences in the predicted outcomes shows that it is the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe households who would appear to face most discrimination. The Muslim households too face significant inequality in accessing LPG. Policy implications of the findings are considered.
Citation
Saxena , V & Bhattacharya , PC 2018 , ' Inequalities in LPG and electricity consumption in India : The role of caste, tribe, and religion ' , Energy for Sustainable Development , vol. 42 , no. C , pp. 44-53 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esd.2017.09.009
Publication
Energy for Sustainable Development
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0973-0826Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2017, International Energy Initiative. Published by Elsevier Inc. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esd.2017.09.009
Collections
Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.