Structural Perils and the Burden on Women
Earthy mud floors with a sense of sweet food fragrances, walls or rather structures made of natural materials like bamboo and kud (a variety found in forests of Maharashtra) plastered with mud and cow dung..thatched and patched roofs with peaking sun and rain drops intermittently… Romantic and alluringly traditional. In rural India, kitchens are often celebrated as the heart of the home, where traditions simmer and families are nourished.
Yet, for women, these spaces are often battlegrounds of risk, where crumbling infrastructure turns the act of cooking into a daily struggle against health hazards, physical injuries, and eroded dignity. Today I probe on the structural anatomy of rural kitchens—ventilation, water, sanitation, and physical decay. Its not an easy an inquiry for me at a personal level as I have had many a lived experiences in these kitchens, drowned in the fragrances of ‘chula cooked’ meal on slow wood fire, marvelled at the sense of architectural nuances of these hand-built structures, slept peacefully on the floor nearby the hearth of home.
But..I have also seen, observed, felt the not so romantic lived experience.
And hence, can we ponder on the question – How safe is a kitchen with a roof that collapses? And why do we fixate on ventilation and smoke as the sole pillars of clean cooking, when water, sanitation, and structural decay form a deadly matrix that traps women in harm’s way?
In doing so, we look at structures and frameworks of kitchens from Chaukari in Uttarakhand to Sathyamangalam in Tamil Nadu, Kitchens of Bihar, Odisha and Allepy in Kerala, we look at Sundarbans at one end and Maharashtra & Madhya Pradesh at the other end.
The Fragile Framework of Rural Kitchens
Rural Indian kitchens are typically small, often 6×8-foot enclosures made of mud or unplastered brick, either detached from the main house or tucked into a corner with minimal separation. Floors are usually unpaved, made of compacted earth, which turns into a muddy quagmire during monsoons or from spilled water. A 2023 study in rural Odisha found that 68% of such kitchens lack any form of drainage, creating slippery surfaces where women struggle to maintain balance while tending fires or carrying heavy pots. Firewood, often stored in open courtyards without cover, soaks up rain, producing thick, acrid smoke when burned. This smoke clings to soot-blackened walls and floors, a constant reminder of the health toll exacted in these spaces.
Ventilation is a critical failure, and it also the most studied academic factor in the world of Indoor Air Pollution as structural issues, second only to fuel related study. Most rural kitchens have no windows or, at best, a single small opening high on the wall, insufficient to clear smoke. A 2021 TERI report noted that 72% of rural kitchens in Bihar lack adequate airflow, trapping toxic fumes from burning biomass. This design ‘flaw’ is not an oversight on the part of a rural low income house hold, but a structural norm, rooted in cost constraints and traditional building practices that prioritize basic shelter over safety.
Water: A Precarious Necessity
Water access in rural kitchens is a logistical and health nightmare. Leaky thatch or corrugated tin roofs—common in 65% of rural homes, according to a 2022 rural housing survey—drip water onto cooking areas, bringing fire and water into dangerous proximity. A single spark near a puddle can ignite a fire, while water near electrical outlets (in the rare electrified kitchens) risks shocks. Most households lack in-house water sources, with 55% relying on distant handpumps or wells, per a 2020 WaterAid study. Since we are staying with the subject of structural aspects of the rural kitchen, storing of the water and activities around it, increases the burden on women along with the risks of slipping and breaking bones, musculoskeletal issues, constant fatigue, breathing & allergic issues due to constant dampness and several unseen factors.
Storage compounds the problem. Water is kept in old, rusted vessels—often hand-me-down aluminium or iron pots with cracks or dents—stacked on unstable mud shelves or wooden planks. These makeshift storage systems, prone to tipping, invite contamination from dust, pests, or dirty hands. A 2023 WASH study found that 48% of rural kitchens reported pest infestations, with rodents and insects accessing open or poorly sealed containers, increasing the risk of waterborne diseases.
Sanitation: A Neglected Crisis
Sanitation in rural kitchens is virtually non-existent. Without sinks or proper waste disposal, wastewater from cleaning vegetables or utensils pools on the muddy floor, creating breeding grounds for mosquitoes and bacteria. Food scraps, often left uncleared due to lack of designated bins, attract flies and rats. The 2023 WASH study also highlighted that 60% of rural kitchens lack any form of waste management, leading to unhygienic conditions that spread infections. Utensils, often old and overused, are scrubbed with ash or sand due to scarce water, leaving residues that harbor bacteria.
The absence of sanitation infrastructure forces women to improvise, often at great personal cost. Cleaning without running water or soap increases exposure to pathogens, while the physical toll of crouching on muddy floors to scrub pots adds to joint and muscle strain. The lack of proper storage also means food and utensils are vulnerable to contamination, undermining the very purpose of the kitchen as a place of nourishment.
Structural Decay: A Ticking Time Bomb & a study in fragility
Walls of mud or low-quality brick erode under monsoon rains, and roofs—often thatch or rusted tin—leak or collapse under heavy downpours. During one of our field projects in Talasari, Palghar Block of Maharashtra, most of our community women spent several days prior to monsoon in order to repair their home structures but one pre monsoon storm brought down most of their roofs. This not only led to number of precious hours being wasted, but also economic loss as those days were also livelihood days with additional expenses for further repairs. As a result, women were not interested in talking about ‘clean cooking’ as their minds, timelines and days were burdened with house hold repairs. This makes me question whether we take into account this sudden and unaccounted shift in days while mapping the field programmes. What’s more important? Having a roof on the head that does not leak, or some foreign looking cookstove?
A 2021 rural infrastructure report by the Ministry of Rural Development found that 45% of rural homes had structural damage, with kitchens particularly vulnerable due to their exposure to heat, moisture, and neglect. A collapsing roof is not a hypothetical risk; it’s a reality for many, threatening crush injuries or worse. In 2022, a village in Jharkhand reported two women injured when their kitchen roof caved in during cooking, a stark reminder of the stakes.
Slippery, uneven floors exacerbate the danger, especially when women carry hot pots or navigate around open flames. The proximity of leaky roofs to cooking fires creates a hazardous interplay—water dripping near flames can cause sudden flare-ups or steam burns.
Induction stoves, Gas cylinders, exposed wires and pipes – children playing… Kitchens of Bihar
I visited Bihar in 2024 to study the use of Induction cookstoves in low-income households. While the induction stove adoption indicated positive trend, what was not so positive was the electrical wiring, where present, and often makeshift, with exposed wires dangling near wet surfaces and with children paying around.
In order for us to look at Modern cooking devices using Electricity, shouldn’t the safe & sound electric set up become ‘the primary factor’ of transition?
In addition to structural deficiencies like inadequate ventilation and unsafe cooking setups, poor lighting is a pervasive yet often overlooked peril in rural Indian kitchens. Many of these kitchens, constructed with limited resources, lack access to consistent electricity or proper lighting fixtures, relying instead on dim kerosene lamps, single low-wattage bulbs, or natural light filtering through small windows or open doorways. This creates a hazardous environment that compounds the challenges faced by those who spend hours preparing meals.
Women often frontload their kitchen activities during the day to maximise on the daylight, often resulting in extreme fatigue. For cooking areas that are outside the house, stepping out without proper lighting, is an added risk due to various factors.
A Toxic Triad: Health and Wellbeing in Peril
The convergence of contaminated water storage, smoke from wet firewood, and old, overused vessels forms a toxic triad that devastates women’s health and wellbeing. Water stored in cracked, rusted vessels breeds pathogens, leading to diarrheal diseases that affect rural women annually, per a 2023 WASH study, draining their physical strength and resilience. Dense smoke, trapped by poor ventilation, causes chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in women, clouding their lungs and dimming their vitality. Old, corroded utensils, caked with residue from inadequate cleaning, foster bacterial growth, increasing risks of foodborne infections that sap energy and erode morale. These conditions not only harm physical health but also crush mental wellbeing, as women toil in undignified, hazardous spaces, their worth reduced to meals produced at immense personal cost. The constant threat of injury—from falls on slick floors, burns from erratic flames, or cuts from falling utensils—adds a layer of chronic stress, undermining their sense of safety and self.
Beyond Smoke: A Call to Rethink Clean Cooking
And yet, we fixate on ventilation and smoke along with type of ‘clean cookstove’ as the sole markers of clean cooking, when the structural decay of rural kitchens—leaky roofs, muddy floors, absent sanitation, and unsafe storage—forms a web of risks that ensnares women?
Lets be clear that ‘cleaner stoves’ and any new technology or fuel alone cannot address crumbling walls, contaminated water, or unhygienic conditions. These kitchens, meant to sustain life, instead steal health, time, and dignity from the women who labor within them.
How can we call a kitchen a safe space when its very structure conspires against those it claims to serve? What will it take to rebuild not just stoves, but the entire ecosystem of rural kitchens, so women can cook without fear?
This blog is not an attempt to provide solutions but to reflect on systemic gaps and how can we shift from silos to symbiosis, from metrics to meaning, from clean cookstoves to clean kitchens and hence from women’s drudgery to women’s wellness & happiness.
All pictures used in this documentation are taken during Smokeless Cookstove Foundation’s field projects
About the author
Nitisha is the Founder & Director of Smokeless Cookstove Foundation that works with communities such as adivasis of Warli Pada to create awareness about clean energy and various livelihood linkages connected to clean energy. Her NGO teaches such communities the skill of making an improved mud cookstove model from naturally available materials based on Rocket Stove Technology to help them reduce drudgery emanating from rudimentary cooking methods.
