Brokering development: Geographies of mediation and energy sector reforms in Maharashtra, India

Indoor air pollution presents a significant health risk to many households using open-flame chulah (cookstoves) throughout rural India. In response to these risks the Government of India initiated the National Program on Improved Chulah (NPIC) to replace traditional cookstoves with newer, smokeless varieties during the period 1983-2001. This program provided partial subsidies to purchasing households and guaranteed payments to artisans fabricating cookstoves. One year after the cessation of the NPIC, The Shell Foundation began promoting the commercial delivery of smokeless cookstoves by investing in market infrastructure development in the State of Maharashtra, India. This shift is consistent with broader rural energy sector reforms marked by state disinvestment, market entrenchment and increased foreign direct investments. This study examines the experiences of sample populations from three analytic groups--local NGO employees, female stove users and village artisans--who each negotiate the commercial marketplace. Building on scholarship from the fields of political ecology and rural development studies this study explicates the significance of community-level intermediary activities in three districts in Maharashtra. A critical examination of intermediary activities strengthens theories on individual and community responses to neoliberal development. The analytic frame 'geographies of mediation' reveals a diversity of brokering activities and describes how they are utilized by certain groups and individuals to access neoliberal state resources and the benefits of market-based development projects. Abstract: Indoor air pollution presents a significant health risk to many households using open-flame chulah (cookstoves) throughout rural India. In response to these risks the Government of India initiated the National Program on Improved Chulah (NPIC) to replace traditional cookstoves with newer, smokeless varieties during the period 1983-2001. This program provided partial subsidies to purchasing households and guaranteed payments to artisans fabricating cookstoves. One year after the cessation of the NPIC, The Shell Foundation began promoting the commercial delivery of smokeless cookstoves by investing in market infrastructure development in the State of Maharashtra, India. This shift is consistent with broader rural energy sector reforms marked by state disinvestment, market entrenchment and increased foreign direct investments. This study examines the experiences of sample populations from three analytic groups--local NGO employees, female stove users and village artisans--who each negotiate the commercial marketplace. Building on scholarship from the fields of political ecology and rural development studies this study explicates the significance of community-level intermediary activities in three districts in Maharashtra. A critical examination of intermediary activities strengthens theories on individual and community responses to neoliberal development. The analytic frame 'geographies of mediation' reveals a diversity of brokering activities and describes how they are utilized by certain groups and individuals to access neoliberal state resources and the benefits of market-based development projects.