Household cooking fuel choices and their health-economic implications in Eastern Uttar Pradesh: a comprehensive review

The various socioeconomic, cultural, demographic, and infrastructure elements that influence household cooking fuel preferences in Eastern Uttar Pradesh (EUP), India, are examined in this review of the research. Although policy initiatives such as the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) aim to encourage underprivileged groups to adopt Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), a sizable fraction of households still rely on traditional biomass, such as firewood, cow dung cakes, and agricultural wastes, particularly in rural and economically disadvantaged areas. This review highlights the substantial health risks—such as respiratory ailments—associated with biomass combustion and synthesizes empirical research and theoretical concepts to examine its broader influence on household healthcare expenditure. It also looks at the social and economic obstacles to the switch to clean energy, pointing out that a number of factors together affect fuel choices, including family size, household income, female literacy, access to distribution infrastructure, and deeply ingrained cultural norms. This review argues for the creation of decentralized, culturally sensitive policy frameworks and highlights the implications for public health and the environment. It also points out significant gaps in region-specific data. To enable long-term acceptance and affordability of clean cooking fuels in EUP, interventions must be tailored to local lived experiences and behavioral dynamics. The findings indicate that in order to address the underlying sociocultural and infrastructure barriers influencing energy decisions among poor groups, an integrated strategy beyond the supply of subsidies is required.