Energy Anxiety And Subjective Wellbeing Among Marginalised Communities: Evidence From Rural India

Abstract

This study investigates the construct of Energy Anxiety among marginalised communities in Baripada district, Odisha. The purpose is to understand how persistent worry related to affordability, reliability, and safety of energy access affects the subjective wellbeing of low-income and Scheduled Tribe households. The study responds to the limited scholarship on the psychological dimensions of energy poverty in eastern India. A cross-sectional household survey was conducted among 240 respondents across ten villages in Baripada. The newly developed Energy Anxiety Index (EAI) was validated using reliability and factor analyses. Measures of subjective wellbeing (life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect) were incorporated. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, correlations, and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling to assess direct and moderating effects. Results indicate high levels of energy anxiety (Mean = 4.08/5), driven by unpredictable outages, increasing energy expenditure, and fear related to unsafe cooking practices. Energy anxiety is associated with lower life satisfaction (β = −0.307, p <0.001) and positive affect (β = −0.290, p <0.001), and higher negative affect (β = 0.330, p <0.001). Moderation analysis showed that households with irregular electrification and those dependent on biomass fuels reported the strongest adverse effects. The study is geographically limited to one district and uses a cross-sectional design. However, the findings offer clear implications for energy justice interventions and targeted welfare policies. The study introduces a novel measure of Energy Anxiety and demonstrates its relevance for understanding subjective wellbeing in marginalised rural contexts, contributing a new psychological dimension to energy poverty research.