International Journal of Agriculture Extension and Social Development

author(s)
Meenu, Aysha BE and Yashpal Yadav

abstract
A key element of sustainable rural development is household energy conservation. Rural women, as the principal users of domestic energy resources, play a critical role in promoting and implementing energy-saving practices. Their knowledge about energy conservation has a direct impact on fuel usage, cost savings and environmental sustainability. Common methods include using improved cookstoves, fuel-efficient cooking techniques, switching to solar illumination, reducing electricity waste and decreasing reliance on conventional biomass fuels. The study's specific objective was to study the "Knowledge of rural women about energy conservation methods" in the Hisar region of Haryana state. Four villages (Ludas, Rawalwas Khurd, Siswal and Neoli Kalan) adopted by College of Home Science under the RAWE program in recent years were purposefully chosen. To determine the gain in knowledge of rural women, both pre and post scores for knowledge were calculated and data was analyzed using the two sample 'z' test. According to the study, the majority of respondents were between the age group of 20-35 years. Majority was married & more than half lived in nuclear families. Farming was the primary family occupation. The highest gain in knowledge about energy conservation methods was found in "Buy domestic LPG cooker with star level or ISI mark" (M.S.=0.79), followed by "Lighting should be based according to the task to be done" (M.S. =0.77) and "Let the cold food extracted from the fridge come to normal temperature before cooking" (M.S.=0.75). There were substantial differences between the pre and post exposure mean scores for all aspects of the energy conservation strategies.