Domestic Energy Consumption Pattern of Rural Scheduled Caste (SC) Households in a Selected District of Haryana

A study was conducted to assess the domestic energy consumption pattern of scheduled caste (SC) rural households in Hisar distrct of Haryana state. The sample comprised of 300 SC rural women who were randomly selected from six SC dominating villages viz. Ludas, Shahpur, Mangali, Balawas, Kharakhara and Gaibipur of Hisar district. Well structured interview schedule was constructed to assess profile and activity wise energy consumption pattern. It was found that in aggregate more than half of respondents belonged to middle age group (53.7%), married (66%) and belonged to joint family (54.7%) with medium family size (58%). Majority of respondents (27.7%) were educated up to primary level and 58.7 per cent of respondents had medium level of family education. Most of women (68.3%) were occupied as agricultural labourer and average monthly income of majority (72.7%) of respondents was low. Majority (94%) of respondents had no land, kuccha-pacca house (65.3%), low material possession (88.7%) and small herd size (78%). Maximum energy was consumed for cooking including tea preparation and milk heating (118.08 x 10³ MJ) followed by water heating (30.87 x 10³ MJ), lighting (21.14 x 10³ MJ), cattle feed preparation (16.94 x 10³ MJ), space heating (6.16 x 10³ MJ), entertainment (0.38 x 10³ MJ) and cooling (0.22 x 10³ MJ).