Dhaka, Aug 28 – Price increase of kerosene—still a major fuel for lighting in many rural parts of Bangladesh—put more adverse effects on women than men, a study carried out by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) said.
The findings of the study titled “Gender Differentiated Impacts of Kerosene Pricing and Policy Reform in Bangladesh” were revealed during a workshop at a city hotel yesterday.
Presenting the keynote paper, Tahreen Tahrima Chowdhury, Associate Research Fellow of BIDS said, the objective of the study was to find out how do the changes in kerosene pricing policies affect welfare, productivity and empowerment of women in low income households of Barishal, Rangpur and Chittagong divisions in Bangladesh.
She said the study was conducted with the hypothesis that because women are largely under-represented in decision making process relating to energy, and typically experience high levels of intra-household inequality and most exposure to indoor air pollution, any reform in the price of domestic fuel will have the biggest impact on women.
She said the study finds that immediate effect of price increase of kerosene by 20 percent or 50 percent on studying is more fore women compared to men as women have to forgo more study hours at night compared to men.
Women also tend to shift their leisure hours from night to day time at both 20 percent and 50 percent price increase.
“Even electrification in Bangladesh had drastically reduced the households use of kerosene, still kerosene is used by those households for lighting which do not have access to electricity or Solar Home System (SHS),” said Tahmina.
The study was conducted over the poor households of 126 villages of the three divisions. A total of 630 households were surveyed in between March 2017-April 2017.
It also finds that the apparent government policy of lowering the kerosene price had not been translated into a lower price as lower prices have not been passed through to consumers. The price paid by the households for kerosene is on average 13.7 percent higher than the market registered price.
Dr KAS Murshid, Director General of BIDS, Dr Shmsul Alam, Energy Advisor of Consumer Association of Bangladesh (CAB), and Dr Nurul Islam, energy expert and former Professor of BUET were present at the occasion. – Staff Reporter
