Negotiating Access: The Social Process of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Cookstove Dissemination Intervention in Himachal Pradesh, India

For decades, governments and aid agencies have disseminated millions of improved cooking devices and fuels to address a variety of environmental, health, and livelihood issues in the developing world. This paper is an ethnographic case study of a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cookstove intervention by a community-based organization, Jagriti, to disseminate LPGs to hill women in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. I conducted a combination of household surveys, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews with villagers, Jagriti’s director, and local gas agencies managers. The undirected diffusion of LPG made its way along the webs of caste delineations, income levels, and the social networks of field promoters. I argue that removing barriers of access for the poorest of the poor is a negotiated and contested social process. Despite Jagriti’s efforts to enhance access to LPG, realizing the full extent of its benefits depends on fundamental improvement of the gas delivery infrastructure and socio-economic conditions of the marginalized.