As Diwali approaches, air pollution levels in northern India have reached a critical state. While much focus is laid on Delhi’s air pollution for its obvious iconic importance, pollution has now become an inescapable reality impacting each one of us. The only difference lies in the adaptation and mitigation strategies i.e.; a few can afford air filters and work from home, while a construction worker lacks the same privilege.
While much focus is laid on Delhi’s air pollution for its obvious iconic importance, pollution has now become an inescapable reality impacting each one of us.
In the last few years, enough has been said from the data point of view on air pollution. Non-profits such as IQAir have often come up with eye-grabbing reports – some ranking the Delhi-NCR region as the most polluted region in the world. The governments have also celebrated the slightest change in Delhi’s ranking from one to third to fourth on the air pollution charts.
The average of Delhi’s AQI in 2023 was 204, which according to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has been the best so far since 2018 and even before that, barring 2020, which saw an exceptional AQI owing to continued spells of lockdown and low anthropogenic activities round the year. That means this time of the year, when the national capital cribs about air pollution is all about a sophisticated idea of environmental justice, while technically it is only for a week or two that Delhi experiences clean air (as per the WHO and NAAQ standards).
Among these absurdities, the constant reality is that air pollution is a threat to our lives and livelihoods. It is dastardly impacting the health of our children, elders, and all vulnerable groups.
The human cost of air pollution
Devina, a 12-year athlete, shares that with the onset of the season approaching Diwali, she experiences difficulty in her practice sessions. ‘I usually breathe through the mouth during the sprinting but during this part of the year (smog-filled air) our coach advises us to breathe through our nose as the air directly fills into our lungs when inhaled from the mouth, which is more harmful and causes further damage,‘ said Devina.
A conversation with a group of food delivery men revealed they are paid a meagre ten to fifty rupees per delivery and on average they can make around 12 to 20 deliveries every day. Their monthly income after successful completion of the target ranges somewhere between Rs.3600 and Rs.30,000. During this part of the year, the exposure to pollution is detrimental to their health. The season also witnesses a reduction in the number of deliveries as people prefer home-cooked food which leads to a decline in income and impacts their and their dependents’ lives.
‘Roz 100 rupya riksha ka bhada dena padta hai. Hawa kharab rehta hai toh sawari milna mushkil hai. Tyohar ka bhi yahi season hota hai. Sabkuch par asar pad jata hai. Sawari nahi aayega toh aamdani nahi hogi. Parivar ko khilana toh bhi hai! (I have to pay Rs 100 daily as rent for the Rickshaw without a miss. If the air is polluted, people don’t step out of their homes. It is also the season of festivals (refers to Diwali, Bhaidooj, and Chhath. If I don’t get passengers that means a dip in income. I have a family to feed. Everything gets affected.)‘, said Raju Gupta (56), a rickshaw-puller at Chandni Chowk, originally belonging to Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
Construction workers, mostly daily wagers, toil with unwavering resolve as they battle deadly pollution in October-November-December and heat waves in April-May-June.
Construction workers, mostly daily wagers, toil with unwavering resolve as they battle deadly pollution in October-November-December and heat waves in April-May-June. The working environment at the site doubles their challenges, as they do not have basic water and sanitation facilities. ‘Since our work involves a lot of physical activity, it is difficult to work wearing a mask. If the government bans the construction activities, what do we do? The government must compensate us because we (construction workers) are losing the right to livelihood for a reason to which we have not contributed,’ said a worker angrily.
India Gate Delhi, usually brimming with tourists, witnesses a sharp dip in the number of tourists. Consequently, the reduction in the number of tourists significantly impacts the work of street vendors, local eateries, hawkers, and tourist photographers causing a noticeable decline in their daily earnings and overall economic stability.
Absurdities of climate action
When the thick smog starts or is about to engulf the city, a lot of regular buzz happens in the administration – and that is it– the government’s plan for climate action. They include smog towers, municipalities watering the dust on the roads, closure of schools and educational institutions, companies asked to work remotely, a ban on construction work, penalising the farmers for burning stubble and even arresting them etc.
While all these ‘actions’ contribute to temporarily bringing down emissions, these are not the long-term solutions. Experts believe the governments must do away with seasonal pollution tackling measures and work towards building sustainable and liveable cities.
Bharati Chaturvedi, Founder & Director of Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group, agreed that holistic and long-term measures are required to be adopted. ‘The political differences within the ruling political parties in neighbouring states of the air shed (Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Delhi) should be kept aside while dealing with pollution and the states should learn to work together in the interest of the public.’
Apart from this, she added that the governments must immediately start a system where composting of stubble is incentivised and stubble is bought by the companies or industries at a dignified minimum buyback rate.
Apart from this, she added that the governments must immediately start a system where composting of stubble is incentivised and stubble is bought by the companies or industries at a dignified minimum buyback rate. Plus, she highlighted the importance of dust mitigation strategy to reduce pollution, ‘A lot more native trees, shrubs and creepers at multiple heights including road dividers should be planted so that these green spaces act as dust traps and help in mitigating dust pollution.’
The idea should clearly not be to penalise the farmers but rather work with them together to build a greener system.
‘While smog towers might appear promising on paper, they are flawed, expensive and ineffective solutions to combat air pollution. These are typically large air purifiers which are filters that can only purify air within a certain radius of the installation. Such ‘solutions’ raise the false sense of assurance. Instead of such beautified measures, the need of the time is to deal with pollution with a comprehensive and holistic approach,” said Milan Sinha, Program Coordinator at Palakiya Foundation. Sinha works with local administrations to develop local climate adaptation and mitigation measures.
Though her views resonate with Bharati’s, she shared an interesting insight from her on-ground experiences. “The air pollution data that we get are incorrect and are manipulated at the primary levels. At several places in Delhi, air quality monitoring machines are placed under the trees. Plus, the number of these monitoring devices is quite less than what is required. So, the first thing the government needs to do is: rationalize its development measures while assessing the impact of its measures on the people,” she said.
Therefore, our responses to air pollution must be human-centric and not aggravate the sufferings of the underprivileged. The primary target group for driving climate action should be the consuming class i.e.; the upper middle classes and the urban elites and not the ones who have lesser carbon footprints than us, the middle classes.
