Bhubaneswar: Oil Marketing Companies(OMCs) will engage more than 10,000 rural women as "UjjwalaDidis" to act as grassroot energy ambassadors across Odisha toensure sustainability of LPG use.
"More than 10,000 Ujjwala Didis have been identifiedwho will act as grassroot energy ambassadors all over Odisha,"Chief General Manager, IOCL & SLC Oil Industry, Odisha,Subhajit Ghosh told reporters here.
He said Ujjwala Didis will act as a bridge betweenexisting and prospective LPG consumers and the distributors inthe state, which saw phenomenal growth in LPG households from20 lakh in 2014 to almost 78 lakh in February 2019.
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Their positive intervention into the rural domesticenergy ecosystem and distribution network help all in ease ofbooking for a refill, issuance of new connections andsustainable use of energy.
Noting that Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) hascontributed to LPG growth in Odisha almost singlehandedly, hesaid PMUY was launched in Odisha on June 20, 2016, and sincethen 39 lakh PMUY connections have been given to poor women with nil security deposit.
While overall LPG penetration in Odisha has gone up to73 per cent from 20 per cent in 2014, sustainability is thecornerstone of any successfully implemented scheme.
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The next logical step is to put in place a frameworkwhich shall lead to the desired effect in the socio-economicspheres of the beneficiaries on a long term basis.
In this regard, OMCs have come up with the concept ofUjjwala Didis, who are identified from PMUY beneficiaries.They analyse the deep impact the changing energy landscape canmake in the day to day life of rural women and theirhousehold, said an official.
