A film to promote PM Ujjwala Yojana

On the occasion of the second anniversary of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, a film, 'Winds of Change,' will remind viewers to focus on cleaner energy.

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana is an initiative launched on 1st May 2016 by the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. This initiative aims to safeguard the health of women and children from the smoke emitted from households using firewood for cooking purposes and consequently is committed to providing 80 million BPL households with free LPG connections over the next few years.

The one-hour film chronicles the story of 4 women, who like others from 67% of rural households of the country, cook with biomass fuel on the live fire. It will tell an awe-inspiring story of how exposure to the smoke emanating from these bygone ways of cooking have an immediate impact on the environment and affects people across ages.

The film also showcases a compelling narrative of the problems on-ground, reporting stories from across the country - covering areas from Kashmir Valley, Assam, Uttar Pradesh to Odisha, highlighting various programmes rolled out by the government aimed at educating people towards the advantages of switching to LPG and further eliminating increasing issues related to pollution.

Speaking on this initiative, Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, said, "With Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, we aim to use LPG as a catalyst for social change through enhancing the health and socio-economic indicators of women from underprivileged sections of society. We hope this National Geographic film takes the Ujjwala story to the world where people grappling with similar issues of indoor air pollution and challenging set-ups can use our experiences, and perhaps even help us better our own model, so we script a story of developing nations' unique way of fighting climate change while empowering women."

The film will focus on a powerful topic, air pollution, and how people fail to realise that many are exposed to it within their very homes.

'Winds of Change' will premiere on May 13 at 10 am on National Geographic.