 Summary of this article
- An LPG shortage in Delhi, triggered by escalating tensions in West Asia and disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, has forced thousands into long queues and pushed households back to traditional fuels like firewood and coal.
- The crisis is hitting the urban poor and lower middle class the hardest, disrupting daily meals, shutting small businesses, and driving people toward expensive black-market cylinders or unsafe alternatives.
- Despite years of expanding clean cooking access, the current disruption exposes the fragility of India’s energy dependence on imports and the uneven burden crises place on vulnerable communities.
Across several neighbourhoods in Delhi, queues begin forming long before sunrise. By 4 am, people from vastly different backgrounds, daily-wage workers, homemakers, street vendors, and small restaurant owners, are already waiting outside LPG distributors, hoping to secure a cooking gas cylinder. Many return home only by the afternoon, empty-handed. |
