Energy, Disability, and Everyday Life in Ahmedabad - Amita Bhakta

This blog was originally posted on the Modern Energy Cooking Services website and is available here.

By Pramila Silakari, Krishna Keshavani, Katha Bhatt and Dr Amita Bhakta

This blog is part of a series which reflect on and explore a study on Energy, Disability and Everyday life in Ahmedabad, India. The study was conducted collaboratively by Prabhat Education Foundation and Dr Amita Bhakta (Independent Researcher). The activities involved 78 participants, including persons with disabilities (PwDs), their caregivers, community workers, and experts, to understand the multifaceted challenges they face in accessing electricity and cooking energy.

The study reveals intersectional challenges faced by persons with disabilities (PwDs) in low-income urban settings, highlighting systemic gaps in accessibility, energy equity, and policy implementation.

This blog focuses on the key findings and recommendations. The upcoming blogs in the series, will cover the qualitative and participatory methods—including, drawings, PhotoVoice, and storytelling.

Accessibility and Physical Barriers

PwDs encounter compounded inaccessibility in housing and public infrastructure: narrow staircases, elevated switchboards, poorly lit shared toilets, and kitchens without adaptive designs, forcing unsafe practices like floor-level cooking.
Visually impaired individuals lack tactile or audio cues on appliances, increasing reliance on hazardous alternatives (e.g., open flames).
Public facilities (clinics, therapy centers, electricity offices) frequently lack ramps, elevators, or adequate lighting, excluding PwDs from essential services.

Energy Dependency and Vulnerability

Households with PwDs have higher energy needs for cooling (fans), heating (heaters), assistive devices (wheelchair chargers), and health equipment (refrigerated medications).
Power instability disrupts critical routines—children with battery-dependent aids face interruptions, while caregivers adjust meal prep, bathing, and therapy schedules around electricity availability.

Economic Constraints and Coping Mechanisms

Affordability is a major barrier: families avoid simultaneous device usage to limit bills, resort to unsafe informal connections, or prioritize energy for health needs over other household uses.
Energy rationing is common, with medical devices often deprioritized due to cost concerns.

Gender, Caregiving, and Invisible Labour

Female caregivers (often mothers) shoulder disproportionate energy-related burdens—managing devices, adjusting routines, and sacrificing their own needs.
Women with disabilities face double exclusion: restricted control over energy use and exclusion from household decisions. Elderly PwDs, particularly women, are further marginalized in energy usage.
Cultural norms force disabled women into unsafe cooking roles, with visually impaired women enduring burn injuries and deaf individuals missing auditory safety alerts.

Institutional Gaps and Policy Disconnects

Awareness of energy schemes (e.g., Saubhagya, PMUY) is low among PwDs, and application processes are complex therefore not accessed.
Policies lack disability-inclusive standards: no mandates for accessible utility designs (e.g., meter height, tactile interfaces) or prioritized service for life-sustaining equipment.
Urban data systems (Census, NSS, SECC) appears to lack capturing disability-specific energy needs, perpetuating planning blind spots.

The Myth of Universal Electrification

While India claims 91% household electrification (Saubhagya/PMUY), physical connectivity does not guarantee functional access for PwDs. They face de facto exclusion despite de jure connectivity: 62% of surveyed PwD households in Ahmedabad required caregiver assistance to operate switches/meters.

45% couldn’t independently read bills or meter displays.
Physical accessibility (e.g., unreachable meters, lack of tactile interfaces).
Safety for sensory/mobility impairments.
Affordability of sustaining medical devices.

Electrification metrics ignore:

Physical accessibility (e.g., unreachable meters, lack of tactile interfaces).
Safety for sensory/mobility impairments.
Affordability of sustaining medical devices.

Recommendations

To address the systemic exclusion of persons with disabilities (PwDs) from functional energy access and inclusive urban infrastructure, the following multi-stakeholder recommendations are proposed:

1-Disability-Inclusive Energy & Urban Planning

Revise electrification policies (Saubhagya, PMUY) to include accessibility audits—mandating tactile switches, audible meters, and reachable infrastructure.
Link energy subsidies (e.g., free/subsidized units) to households with PwDs, prioritizing those with life-sustaining medical devices.
Amend building codes to enforce universal design standards (ramps, lighting, kitchen adaptations) in both public utilities and low-income housing.

2-Data & Accountability

Integrate disability-disaggregated energy needs into national surveys (NSS, Census, SECC) to inform planning.
Establish monitoring frameworks to track functional (not just technical) energy access for PwDs.

3-Affordable Assistive Technologies

Subsidize adaptive devices (e.g., voice-controlled switches, non-slip cooking tools) through partnerships with disability NGOs.
Promote decentralized solar solutions (e.g., battery backups for medical equipment) tailored to PwDs’ needs.

4-Capacity Building

Train caregivers on safe energy practices (e.g., fire hazards, backup management).
Peer-to-peer networks: Scale grassroots innovations (e.g., visual alert systems) through community workshops.
Train energy utility staff, urban planners, and Anganwadi or ASHA workers on disability-inclusive energy service delivery.
Develop practical toolkits for caregivers on safe and energy-efficient routines for households with PwDs.
Conduct disability audits in public electrification and infrastructure projects, using participatory metrics.

5-Gender-Responsive Measures

Targeted energy subsidies for women caregivers to reduce financial strain.
Safe cooking initiatives: Provide accessible cookstoves and burn-prevention training for visually impaired women.
Include PwDs (especially women) in energy decision-making at household and local governance levels.

6-Corporate (Disability-inclusive CSR programs) & Utility Engagement

Energy companies to fund accessible infrastructure (e.g., ramps in electricity offices, braille bills).
Promote low-cost, accessible cooking and lighting solutions: tactile stoves, audio-activated switches, or solar standing fans.
Encourage product innovation in assistive technologies—focusing on energy efficiency and context-specific design.
Set up charging stations for assistive tech (e.g., wheelchairs, hearing aids) in community centers or health facilities.
Priority service guarantees: Utilities to expedite repairs for households with PwDs dependent on medical devices.
Retrofit public utilities and energy offices with universal access features: ramps, visual/audio counters, wider service areas, and accessible signage.
Embed gender-sensitive and age-inclusive design in affordable housing and slum redevelopment, accounting for caregiving realities.

7-Awareness & Advocacy

National campaigns to raise awareness of energy rights for PwDs, leveraging disability rights groups.
Policy advocacy: Push for amendments to the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPwD) to include energy accessibility clauses.

Energy access for PwDs in Ahmedabad remains a paradox: widely available yet functionally exclusionary. This study underscores that solutions must move beyond technical connectivity to address dignity, safety, and intersectional marginalization. By centering PwDs’ lived experiences—especially women and caregivers—in policy and design, India can bridge the gap between SDG 7’s promise and reality. Inclusive energy is not a privilege; it is a right.

The full report is available here.