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Who Breathes Dirty Air?

Environmental justice, gender, poverty and the politics of clean air in Nepal

Grades 11–12 60 min discussion live IESH data

Students examine the unequal distribution of air pollution exposure across gender, class and geographic lines in Nepal, analyse the policy responses, and engage with the ethical frameworks of environmental justice.

Learning objectives

  • Define environmental justice and apply it to Nepal's air quality context.
  • Analyse how gender, income and geography determine air pollution exposure in Nepal.
  • Evaluate current Nepali government policies on air quality and cooking fuel transition.
  • Construct an evidence-based policy recommendation for reducing inequitable air pollution exposure.

Background

Environmental justice is the principle that no community should bear a disproportionate share of environmental harms regardless of race, income, gender or other characteristics. It emerged from the US environmental justice movement in the 1980s but applies globally. In Nepal's context, the principle highlights how the same society can simultaneously include those with almost no pollution exposure (wealthy urban households with electric appliances) and those with extreme daily exposure (rural women cooking on open fires in unventilated kitchens).

Nepal's government has implemented several relevant policies. The Subsidy on LPG policy has reduced (and complicated) fuel costs. The Biogas Support Programme (BSP-Nepal) has installed over half a million household biogas plants since 1992, displacing significant biomass burning. The Improved Cookstoves Programme attempts to reduce wood consumption and indoor smoke. The National Ambient Air Quality Standards set limits for outdoor pollutants, but enforcement is limited by monitoring capacity and political will.

The gendered dimension deserves particular attention. The Global Burden of Disease study estimates that household air pollution is responsible for 6.7% of Nepal's total disease burden — and this burden falls disproportionately on women because traditional gender roles place women in the kitchen. A policy that reduces cooking smoke is therefore also a gender equity intervention, and this framing has been used successfully to access climate and health funding for clean cooking programmes in Nepal.

Procedure

  1. Read the current air quality values. Note the time and any nearby pollution sources.
  2. Define "environmental justice" in your own words, then refine it after reading the background section.
  3. Create a table: three columns (Low-income rural woman / Middle-income urban man / Wealthy urban household), three rows (Pollution source they face / Hours of exposure per day / Capacity to reduce exposure). Fill it in for Nepal.
  4. Research: Nepal's Biogas Support Programme has installed 500,000+ household biogas units. Calculate what fraction of Nepal's approximately 5 million households this represents. Is this adequate?
  5. In pairs, design a policy intervention to reduce indoor air pollution in rural Nepal that explicitly addresses gender equity. Consider: who benefits, who pays, who decides, what barriers exist.
  6. Write a 250-word policy brief arguing for one specific government action on Nepal's clean cooking transition.

Discussion

  1. A woman who cooks with wood fire in rural Nepal does not "choose" to breathe polluted air in any meaningful sense. What structural factors constrain her choices? Who is responsible for changing them?
  2. The government subsidises LPG for cooking but the subsidy is often captured by urban households, not rural ones. What does this suggest about how policy design can reproduce inequality?
  3. Is air pollution in Nepal a health problem, an environmental problem, a gender problem, an economic problem, or all of these at once? What difference does the framing make to the solutions that are considered?

Worksheet

1. Define "environmental justice" and explain with ONE specific example how it applies to air quality in Nepal. [4 marks]

Answer guide (for teachers)

Environmental justice means no community should bear a disproportionate share of environmental harm. Nepal example: rural women cooking on open fires bear extreme daily PM2.5 and CO exposure while wealthy urban households face minimal exposure — same country, radically different exposure based on income and gender.

2. Identify TWO ways that Nepal's clean cooking policies have been effective and TWO ways they have fallen short. [6 marks]

Answer guide (for teachers)

Effective: BSP-Nepal 500,000+ biogas units; LPG access has expanded in urban areas; cookstove programmes have reduced smoke in some areas. Fallen short: rural poor still largely excluded; LPG subsidies often captured by urban users; maintenance of improved stoves is poor; coverage remains partial. Award marks for specificity.

3. Why is reducing indoor air pollution from cooking fires simultaneously a health intervention AND a gender equity intervention? Explain the connection. [4 marks]

Answer guide (for teachers)

Because women bear the majority of cooking responsibilities in Nepal, they bear the majority of indoor air pollution exposure. Reducing cooking smoke therefore directly improves women's health outcomes disproportionately. It also frees women's time (gathering firewood, tending slow fires) and reduces chronic respiratory disease that disproportionately affects them.

Vocabulary

Environmental Justice
The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people in environmental decision-making, regardless of race, income or gender.
Disease Burden
The total impact of a health problem on a population, measured as deaths, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) or economic cost.
Policy Capture
When a policy intended to benefit a target population is diverted to benefit more powerful groups instead.
Gendered Risk
A risk that falls disproportionately on one gender due to social roles, biological differences or power inequalities.

Extension

Find and read Nepal's National Ambient Air Quality Standards document. Compare the limits set for CO, PM2.5 and PM10 to WHO guidelines. For each pollutant, note whether Nepal's standard is stricter, weaker or equivalent to WHO. Write a paragraph evaluating whether Nepal's standards adequately protect health.

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