Access of the Poor to Clean Household Fuels in India
About three-quarters of all households in India, comprising more than ninetenths
of rural households and one-third of urban households, used traditional biomass—wood and dung—as a household fuel in 1999–2000. Approximately half a million premature deaths and nearly 500 million cases of illness are estimated to occur annually as a result of exposure to smoke emissions from biomass use by households in India, making indoor air pollution the third leading health risk factor.