In slums, green stoves to replace traditional chulhas

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 18

In their bid to raise awareness regarding sustainable fuel and replace traditional and noxious chulhas used in lower income households, the FICCI FLO Amritsar has collaborated with a Delhi-based green crusader Dhruv Arora, founder, Project Refuel, to begin The Green Kitchen Drive.

The FICCI FLO team today distributed 50 green stoves in a slum near Lohgarh where the majority of the population does not have a gas stove.

The green stove uses biomass fuel, thus cutting down 65 per cent on smoke generated by a coal stove.

Arora’s had been working towards creating awareness regarding sustainable, lesser pollutant fuels, including CNG and biofuels. The Project Refuel has been raising funds and promoting green stoves by Greenway Smart Stove, a single-burner stove that uses wood, crop waste or dry dung as a cooking fuel.

Shikha Sareen, chairperson, FICCI FLO Amritsar, said, “The concept of green kitchen is to replace coal chulha with green stoves. The use of these chulhas has a very harmful effect on females of the household and there is a gradual deterioration of their health. Through this initiative, the FICCI FLO Amritsar is helping women to stay in good health and free from diseases, including asthma.”

“We will also be training women and monitor them weekly to ensure that green stoves are used properly. It is a great step towards changing the age-old way of cooking and replacing them with green kitchen stoves,” said Sareen.

In the first phase, the FICCI FLO Amritsar would distribute these green stoves to the needy in the slums. Later, the organisation would promote sustainable fuel among a larger population.

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