The chulha politics | Centre for Science and Environment  Sunita
Narain   The chulha politics  Chulhas—cookstoves of poor women
who collect sticks, twigs and leaves to cook meals—are today at
the centre of failing international action. Women are breathing
toxic emissions from stoves and these emissions are also adding
to the climate change burden. The 2010 Global Burden of Disease
established that indoor air pollution from stoves is a primary
cause of disease and death in South Asia. As many as 1.04
million pre-mature deaths and 31.4 million disability adjusted
life years (DALYs)—measure of years lost due to ill-health,
disability or early death—are related to exposure to biomass
burning in poorly ventilated homes.  But what has spurred action
is the science that there is a connection between local air and
global air pollution. The particles formed during incomplete
combustion—in diesel cars and cookstoves—are seen as powerful
“climate forcers” because they absorb light and convert it into
heat. It is also fo