Smokeless Chullah- an Environment Friendly Drudgery Reducing Technology for Rural Woman

In Assam, fire wood collected from the forest and homestead is the common fuel in rural household for which the rural woman possesses the traditional Chullah which causes health hazards to them. This is equally true for the rural women of Nagaon district too. It was, therefore, felt essential to introduce smokeless Chullah in the villages of Nagaon district. The study was conducted by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Nagaon in the year 2010. It was an action oriented research in which training was given to the farm women through lecture cum demonstration methods and the intervention was done at their home. Data were collected on gain in knowledge, skill up gradation and perception of rural women towards smokelessChullah after training and intervention. Knowledge before training indicates that majority of the respondents (85.0%) were in the category of poor knowledge and 15.0 per cent had average knowledge. Knowledge after training depicts clearly that there were tremendous gain in knowledge as majority of the respondents (67.5%) shifted to the category of good knowledge. Again after intervention, the respondents belonged to the category of good knowledge was 82.5 per cent. The woman beneficiary perceived smokeless Chullah as appropriate in terms of time and fuel saving, low cost, environment friendly and keeps food hot for longer time. An outcome of the two pots smokeless Chullah was that farm woman developed habit of planning menu in advance. The other rural women of the locality where smokeless Chullah was installed expressed willingness to adopt this chullah at their homes very soon.