Universal and Sustainable Access to Modern Energy Services in Rural India: An Overview of Policy-Programmatic Interventions and Implications for Sustainable Development

Abstract

India’s energy challenges are accentuated by the presence of large section of the population, especially in rural areas, lacking access to modern energy carriers. Lack of access to modern energy carrier-based services has implications for economic, social and environmental wellbeing of humanity. The implications are typically in the form of income poverty, primitive lifestyles, loss of dignity, physical hardship, health hazards, lack of employment and polluted environment. In 2007, for example in India, out of a population of about 1,125 million, 400 million were without access to electricity and 801 million were depending on solid fuels for cooking. This status indicates that the polices initiated, and the programmes implemented by the government of India as well as various state governments since the past several years have proved to be ineffective. Keeping these in mind, in this paper, an attempt has been made to provide deeper insights into the relationships between energy access status, policies and programmes and sustainable development by adopting a review methodology. In essence, the paper tries to analyse the linkage current energy access status is an outcome of policy failure, and it has given rise to negative implications for sustainable development through a synthesis of research papers and policy documents.