What Happened
- Government schools running the PM POSHAN (mid-day meal) scheme across multiple states are reverting to firewood and alternative solid fuels for cooking, as a nationwide LPG shortage has made cylinder supply unreliable and unaffordable.
- The PM POSHAN scheme serves approximately 11 crore children across 10.35 lakh schools — predominantly children from socially disadvantaged and low-income backgrounds in classes I–VIII and pre-primary (Bal Vatika).
- Women workers employed in these kitchens are bearing the brunt of the crisis: cooking over open wood fires is physically harder, more time-consuming, and exposes them to dangerous levels of indoor air pollution.
- The LPG shortage is being attributed primarily to disruptions in global supply chains, with the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz — through which 35–50% of India's crude and LPG imports transit — sharply reducing availability of LPG imports, which meet approximately 60% of India's domestic LPG demand.
- State governments and school authorities have been advised to explore temporary alternatives (firewood, coal, diesel) to prevent disruption to meals during the remaining school term.
Static Topic Bridges
PM POSHAN Scheme — Architecture and Significance
Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN) is India's flagship school nutrition programme — an evolution of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme (launched 1995) rebranded in 2021 with enhanced scope. It is the world's largest school feeding programme by coverage.
- Full name: Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN).
- Nodal ministry: Ministry of Education (previously, the Midday Meal Scheme was under the Ministry of Human Resource Development).
- Coverage: ~11.80 crore children in 11.20 lakh government and government-aided schools, Classes I–VIII and Bal Vatika (pre-primary class).
- Approved tenure: 2021–22 to 2025–26 (five-year period).
- Financial outlay: ₹54,061.73 crore from the Central Government + ₹31,733.17 crore from State Governments and UT administrations (combined ₹85,794.90 crore).
- Objectives: Improve nutritional status of school children, enhance school enrolment and attendance, support teachers to focus on education rather than administrative nutrition tasks.
- Universalised in 2001 following a Supreme Court order in the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) v. Union of India case, which directed cooked mid-day meals in all government schools.
Connection to this news: The reversion to firewood directly undermines PM POSHAN's nutritional and health objectives — smoke from wood combustion degrades food safety and threatens the wellbeing of both children and workers.
Indoor Air Pollution and Solid Biomass Cooking
The shift from LPG back to firewood recreates precisely the indoor air pollution hazard that the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) was designed to eliminate from Indian kitchens. Solid biomass combustion (wood, crop residue, dung cakes) is a leading cause of indoor air pollution in India and globally.
- Indoor air pollution from solid fuel combustion is classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a major global health risk — contributing to respiratory diseases (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pneumonia), cardiovascular disease, and adverse pregnancy outcomes.
- India's household air pollution burden: Solid biomass combustion in homes contributes significantly to India's overall PM2.5 load and is disproportionately borne by women and children who spend the most time near cooking fires.
- PMUY (Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana): Launched May 1, 2016 by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas; provides deposit-free LPG connections to women from BPL (Below Poverty Line) households; financial support of ₹1,600 per connection.
- PMUY beneficiaries: 10.33 crore connections as of March 2025 — the largest LPG access expansion programme in the world.
- The LPG shortage crisis risks a "reverse transition" — undoing the clean cooking gains of PMUY for both households and institutional kitchens.
Connection to this news: PM POSHAN school kitchens reverting to firewood is a microcosm of the broader energy access fragility — when LPG supply chains are disrupted, the cooking energy transition is revealed as still incomplete and vulnerable, especially for low-income institutional users.
Energy Security and India's LPG Import Dependence
India is heavily dependent on LPG imports — approximately 60% of domestic LPG consumption is met through imports, with Gulf countries via the Strait of Hormuz accounting for 80–90% of those imports. The current crisis illustrates the structural vulnerability of India's clean cooking transition to geopolitical disruptions.
- Strait of Hormuz: A strategic chokepoint between Iran and Oman through which approximately 35–50% of India's LPG and crude oil imports pass; any closure (as seen in conflict scenarios) sharply curtails supply.
- India's LPG import dependency: ~60% of consumption is imported; domestic production from ONGC and Oil India is insufficient to meet demand.
- Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs): Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum (BPCL), and Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) manage LPG distribution; they absorb subsidy losses when government-mandated retail prices fall below procurement costs.
- LPG subsidy for PMUY beneficiaries: ₹300 per cylinder subsidy currently provided via Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to PMUY households; commercial/institutional users (like PM POSHAN kitchens) do not receive the same subsidy support.
- Strategic reserves: India lacks a dedicated LPG strategic reserve comparable to its crude oil strategic petroleum reserve (Visakhapatnam, Mangaluru, Padur) — making it more vulnerable to short-term supply disruptions.
Connection to this news: The PM POSHAN firewood reversion is not merely an administrative failure but a symptom of India's energy security gap: institutional clean cooking users have no buffer against import disruptions, and no policy mechanism exists to prioritise LPG supply to social welfare programmes during shortage.
Key Facts & Data
- PM POSHAN serves ~11.80 crore children in ~11.20 lakh schools (government and government-aided).
- Nodal ministry: Ministry of Education.
- Financial outlay 2021–22 to 2025–26: ₹85,794.90 crore (Centre + States).
- PMUY: Launched May 1, 2016; 10.33 crore connections as of March 2025; Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
- PMUY provides ₹1,600 support per connection + ₹300/cylinder DBT subsidy to beneficiaries.
- India's LPG import dependence: ~60% of consumption imported, ~80–90% from Gulf via Strait of Hormuz.
- Strait of Hormuz: 35–50% of India's crude and LPG transits through it.
- Indoor air pollution from solid biomass: a leading cause of respiratory disease for women and children in India.
- PUCL v. Union of India (2001): Supreme Court order that universalised mid-day meals in government schools.