Air pollution is not a 'Delhi issue' only

The Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago has reiterated that the Northern Plains — home to 540.7 million people across Bihar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal — is the most polluted region in India. This region makes up 38.9 per cent of India’s population and is on track to lose 5.4 years of life expectancy.

And yet, Delhi takes up all the space in conversations, policy-making and news about air pollution.

Recently, former Jammu and Kashmir CM and president of the ruling National Conference (NC), Dr Farooq Abdullah, said as long as the national capital is not shifted from New Delhi to somewhere else, the choking pollution in the city is not going to go away. Well, that Tughlaqesque idea (of shifting the capital) is not a solution either.

In a BBC article, Parthaa Bosu, strategic adviser at the Environmental Defense Fund, a non-profit group focused on delivering climate solutions, said Delhi is at the receiving end of attention as the national capital of India.

According to Bosu, other parts of northern India — particularly villages and small towns and cities — are neither imagined to be polluted or associated with the risks of high pollution. "In [people's] minds, villages are clean, green and pristine, but that’s far from the reality," he said.

The blame game between Delhi AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) government and BJP-ruled states in northern India oscillates between high rates of stubble burning by farmers in Punjab and poor implementation of the annual action plan monitoring driving restrictions and a ban on construction in Delhi.

The issue is larger and often not recognised. The Indo-Gangetic Plain, a landlocked geography, worsens the situation. The region is surrounded by mountains and lacks strong winds that normally help blow polluted air away. Which is why occasional rain showers in the region clear the smog momentarily, bringing respite from the suffocation.

In 2023, the Centre for Science and Environment’s (CSE) Urban Lab conducted a study headed by urbanist Avikal Somvanshi who said, "But it must be kept in consideration that this rapid build-up (of smog from stubble burning) in a short time span is able to tip air quality into the severe category because baseline pollution from local sources is already very high."

NCR, CSE executive director, research and advocacy, Anumita Roychowdhury said, "Even though the overall long-term pollution curve is stable and downward, it is still significantly above the national ambient air quality standards. This demands most stringent and sustained action on vehicles, industry, energy systems and waste management across the region."

As authorities in Delhi-NCR impose restrictions to combat the worsening air quality in the region, daily-wage workers involved in construction activities bear the brunt of these anti-pollution measures. Construction and demolition activities (C&D) are banned under the GRAP-IV measures that came into effect after many parts of Delhi reported 'severe-plus' air quality (AQI above 450).

Millions of people are employed in unorganised sectors. In Uttar Pradesh alone, more than 83 million are registered in the unorganised sector though the actual number is likely to be much higher.

Many who migrate to Delhi for work are exploited by brutal working hours and conditions, and climate change. Suman, a 45-year-old mother of two, says, “If we sit at home, what will we eat? What will we feed our children?"

She recently renewed her labour card with the hope of receiving government aid, but says it has been a futile exercise. "We don’t have government jobs where salaries come automatically. We survive on daily earnings, and without work, we have nothing,” she says.

For Babu Ram, a 63-year-old construction worker, the ban on C&D activities has exacerbated an already dire financial situation. He has a wife, son, daughter-in-law and grandchild to support, besides having to deal with a debt of Rs 3 lakh.

“There’s no pension for people like me. Schemes like Ladli Behna are riddled with corruption, middlemen take everything and we get nothing,” he says. “If I can’t work, my family won’t survive.”

Similarly, Rajesh Kumar, a 42-year-old labourer, says his family in his village in Bihar depends on the money he sends home. “I have not married yet because I have several responsibilities, including my sister’s wedding, which has left me with a debt of Rs 6 lakh,” he says.

Though there are many, many causes of this dystopian severity of air pollution, and proposals to tackle it, whatever may become of them, the most significant reason this issue continues is because how easily it is forgotten once winter passes.

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav called the Delhi pollution issue correctly for what it is. An "annual" topic.