Covid-19 is making energy access even more challenging for India’s poor Experts argue that the adoption of clean energy is directly related to the purchasing power of the people and will increase only with the upliftment of society. Many in India's rural areas still rely on firewood for cooking. | Karan Singh Rathore/Flickr It was the year 1991 when India decided to open its economy. Hakki Bai, a five-year-old girl then, used to go to nearby forests with her mother to pick woods for fuel. Her mother would use it as firewood to prepare food for her and her father. Thirty years later, Hakki Bai, now a mother, goes to a nearby forest area in search of firewood to cook meals for her and her 15-year-old son. They stay in Kota Gunjapur, a village of Panna district in Madhya Prades that is known for diamond mining.