We need better reporting of household air pollution

In a recent study prepared by the Automotive Research Association of India and TERI, it has been highlighted that close to 3 million households in the National Capital Region use biomass fuel. It is noteworthy that the use of traditional stoves and burning of solid biomass is not restricted to cooking only. It is also used for multiple purposes such as space heating, keeping the flies/insects away in the animal sheds, warming food/water for preparing an animal feed. While all of this is known for a long time, the wider focus has been given on replacing the cook stove that is used for cooking food only. This leaves the issue of household air pollution unaddressed. Incidentally, most large scale household surveys only capture data for cook stoves used in the house and don’t capture data for fuel and device used for space heating in households.