Lalita Marshkole’s day would start promptly at 4 am each morning as she prepared breakfast for her family of four. She devoted hours to Cooking on the traditional mud chulha (cooking stove) before packing lunch for her two children and heading off to work. After finishing work, she faced the challenging task of gathering firewood for cooking. She had to carry several kilograms of wood on her head as she made her way back home.

Lalita and her husband are both daily wage labourers in Badjhir village, located in the Seoni district of Madhya Pradesh.

According to a report by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), nearly 500 million people in India lack access to clean cooking solutions. The report highlights that 41 percent of India’s population — including individuals like Lalita — rely on biomass as cooking fuel. This reliance contributes to approximately 340 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, which accounts for nearly 13 percent of India’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

The smoke from fuel burned for heating and cooking is one of the biggest contributors to indoor air pollution in India. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that every year, 3.2 million people die prematurely from illnesses attributable to household air pollution caused by the incomplete combustion of solid fuels and kerosene used for cooking.

While the long-term solution for this is the usage of LPG stoves, which the Government is providing through the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, many are yet to adapt to it as they can’t afford refills.

When Ankit Mathur came across this problem, fresh out of IIM-Ahmedabad, in 2008, he started looking for a solution with his co-founder Neha Juneja. Interested in the sustainability space, they were working on renewable energy projects in rural areas. Here, they came face to face with the daily challenges in a woman’s life.

They saw that most of the women’s time was spent either cooking or collecting firewood to cook. After observing the amount of smoke emanating from the chulhas and studying its detrimental effects on health, the duo decided to work on a clean cooking product.

After a year of research across various states and several prototypes later, they built the solution — a single-burner, high-efficiency cook stove that reduces smoke. Since 2012, Greenway Grameen Infra has sold three million cookstoves and wants to make clean cooking accessible to every part of rural India.

Providing access to clean energy

After completing his MBA at IIM-Ahmedabad, while most of his classmates were going for cushy corporate jobs, Ankit decided to walk off the beaten path. He contacted his Delhi College of Engineering classmate, Neha Juneja, and they decided to work in the sustainability space.

They started by helping organisations effectively manage their carbon initiatives. During this time, they visited many villages and found that there weren’t many products addressing cleaner cooking.

“I saw that most households in the villages we visited were using rudimentary devices to cook. They were burning biomass to make their food. The energy efficiency of biomass is very low. For example, if you burn 1,000 kilojoules, only one-tenth gets transferred to the cookstove, making it very wasteful,” informs Ankit.

In response, they resolved to develop an enhanced and environmentally friendly cookstove to alleviate the workload of women in rural regions. Beginning in 2010, Ankit, a mechanical engineer, and Neha, an industrial engineer, teamed up with Shoeb Kazi, a chemical engineer, to design an energy-efficient ‘smart’ stove. The trio worked on building a prototype, conducting tests, and engaging in sales directly within villages.

“It was a conscious decision,” says Ankit, about their stoves being priced at Rs 500. They wanted to see how much people were willing to pay.

Throughout a major portion of 2010 and 2011, they journeyed through over 30 villages spanning 10 districts across five states: Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan. Over this time, they constructed more than 10 prototypes and, guided by consumer feedback, refined their design to arrive at the winning model, the Greenway Smart Stove.

What’s unique about the stove

Ankit explains that the Greenway Smart Stove comes with a patented air regulation technology that leads to better combustion, thereby increasing efficiency and reducing smoke. They have two models: the Smart Stove at Rs 2,199, and the Jumbo Stove at Rs 3,499 for bigger families.

The stove has a single burner and works on different solid biomass fuels, such as wood, dry dung, crop waste, coconut waste, and bamboo. It reduces cooking time and is portable. The most important benefit of this stove, Ankit claims, is that it helps save 65 percent of fuel and reduces smoke by 70 percent.

“This product eliminates carbon monoxide from burning firewood. It reduces smoke emissions, making it safer for kitchen or household use. Unlike traditional chulhas, which often cause burns, this stove poses less risk of burns for women and children. Additionally, it reduces eye irritation,” adds Ankit.

As far as the environmental impact is concerned, Ankit states that each smart stove reduces greenhouse emissions by at least two tonnes per year. For the women using these stoves, besides the health aspect, their cooking time is greatly reduced.

Lalita, who used to wake up at 4 am, now rises at 5 am, thanks to the improved stove. She notes that cooking has become faster with the Smart stove, which she has been using for the past one and a half years.

“This stove involves much less cleaning as ash doesn’t fall on the floor. The firewood which we used to collect would last us for just two days earlier, now it lasts us for 15 to 20 days. Food is also made on time,” she says. The time spent collecting firewood has also reduced greatly, leaving her with more time to spend with family.

Another customer, Geeta Rahangdale, says that it has made the kitchen cooler and uses very little firewood. She also appreciates the fact that food can be made anywhere in the house.

Providing bargaining power to women

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Although the product was well-received, Ankit discovered that many potential customers were not purchasing it. He realised that while women were primarily responsible for cooking in rural areas, they often lacked the necessary funds or bargaining power to buy the stoves outright. 

Consequently, Ankit and his team began collaborating with rural retail shops, micro-finance institutions, self-help groups, and local NGOs. They developed financial packages through these institutions to allow women to purchase the product through easy instalments. Additionally, they partnered with corporate companies to subsidise the cost of the products.

“The outreach across villages happens through the Greenway team. We have implementation and financing partners to ensure that every woman should be able to avail the benefits of cleaner cooking. We are also working with sustainability partners to provide carbon offsets,” informs Ankit.

Initially, they noticed higher sales in South India, where there’s greater gender equality and women have more access to cash. Over time, sales began to increase nationwide. To date, they have sold over three million stoves across India, Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

They have a factory in Vadodara, Gujarat, with over 500 employees. Ankit’s vision is to reach 20 million households by 2030. “I want to keep designing products that increase the quality of life for rural households. I also aspire to reach more customers at an affordable price point,” he shares.

(Edited by Pranita Bhat; All photos courtesy: Greenway Grameen Infra)