It's that time of the year again when the air in and around the national capital turns murky, making breathing especially difficult for those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. After a brief respite allowed by rain-washed cleanliness, Delhi’s air quality index on AQI.in jumped from 65 to 216 within 24 hours over the weekend. The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology predicted that the city’s air quality would remain officially ‘poor’ during the week ahead. Meanwhile, the Commission for Air Quality Management expanded certain vehicle and construction restrictions for the National Capital Region.
But the fact that the six-year-old commission, at its 141st meeting held last week, noted as many as 55 violations of its norms shows who the culprit really is—the careless citizen who doesn’t pause to think they might be inflicting serious harm on themselves and fellow citizens. This is the person who runs an old diesel generator set whose use has been barred, plies a car without an allowed emission standard or updated pollution certificate, carries on with an uncleared demolition, or refuses to arrange electrical heating for the guards keeping watch in the cold open air. Surely, we all know such persons in every city across the country. Very soon, it will also be the person insisting on bursting crackers in the name of keeping up a cultural tradition.
While we must insist that our governments be more proactive in battling air pollution, we must also carry on the conversation about responsibility in our homes. Cleanliness is a culture that must be instilled early and reinforced when lapses occur. Our governments can learn from London, which was perennially besieged by what was popularly called the ‘pea-soup smog’ through the 19th and early 20th century, and Beijing, which was so embarrassed by its air quality while hosting the 2008 Olympics that it initiated a stern action plan that cleared the air in a decade. The fact that international athletes have refused to participate in recent events hosted in Delhi should be taken as a loud warning bell.While the capital’s air quality is particularly bad, no large Indian city is free from debilitating pollution today. No mission is more important than the one that insists on clean air to breathe. This festive season, let it not be an afterthought.