Winter season returns. Silence hangs in the air alongside the heavy mixture of smoke and fog, commonly termed as “smog”. Several health threats are waiting to be exposed to the right conditions and for fog to be the perfect solute for a smog mixture is Delhi-NCR’s biggest harm to clean air.
In the haze of the unclean air dominating the outside, the insides of homes buzz with the sound of air purifiers, something that has become a necessity at this point in time. These purifiers are the current-day oxygen cylinders that we infamously predict future generations to stay alive by. And because every home wishes to clean the air that belongs only to them; of course, air is classified as well, the smouldering clouds of pollution escaping through the factory chimneys are left for the government to deal with.
Several attempts such as the “odd-even car number” traffic restriction rule, promotion of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) cylinders over petrol and diesel and pollution control checks have been made to regulate pollution in Delhi-NCR. However strict these rules and regulations were made at first, eventually the spirit died down and things returned back to normal, the normally polluted air made its way back into people’s lungs.
There is a climatic phenomenon known as temperature inversion. When cold air blows in the city during the mid to late October period, the air pollutants are trapped closely to the ground, making the air accessible for breathing highly pollution and unfit for consumption. According to recent city records, the Air Quality Index (AQI) has reached alarming levels this year, and the conditions are only getting worse.
For the general middle class whose livelihoods rely on jobs in private or organized public sectors and businesses, these climatic issues might be resolved by small steps taken on a personal level such as relying on public transport or preventing household smoke from corrupting the air by treating. For those people, it is a collective effort to reduce the air noise from taking their clean air away or a demand in front of the government in control to make changes to do the same.
But for the population living in Delhi-NCR’s shadows, for the migrant workers and labourers, the solutions that control the alarming rise of pollutions take away from them their sources of livelihood. Most of these workers are garbage pickers, construction labourers or factory workers. All these methods of earning involve the release of fumes and smoke, the major causes for the pollution problems. To treat the same, the government either imposes restrictions, temporarily shuts down these institutions or order them to cut down labour to reduce the scale of workings.
A statutory body called the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) established by the Central Government raised concerns regarding the pollution levels in NCR and surrounding areas. As a response, construction activities were banned. This measure was taken as a part of their Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) for the degrading quality of air.
These actions taken, however necessary, raise the dispute of taking away from the lower working class their only means of being bread winners. India is a nation of high poverty and job conflicts, and earning a wage for someone without a proper education is no less than any battle. When these people finally find themselves sources of employment, which are most of the times highly unstable, they are faced with these terminal issues. One token of will to be taken for another, if it benefits one, it harms another.
This raises a conundrum. Are the livelihoods of these people more important than the health concern these lingering fumes present for 40 million residents? Is an AQI reaching even further than 400 worth treating or should the jobs of these unlisted workers be protected? Are the estimated 800,000 to 1 million workers who have migrated from all parts of the country in search of employment just so insignificant that taking away from them the freedom and hard work they put into the jobs they’ve earned for themselves?
Pollution control should not come at the cost of survival. What a simple and clear-cut statement that regards the importance of both the movements. Clean breathing air is a right for all the residents of planet Earth. So is the right to earn a livelihood by providing services and adding to their country’s economy. While we question how to solve the conflict that arises when jobs are taken away from the poor for environmental concerns, shouldn’t we ask why the government, the one with power and adequate resources, conjuring up methods for ecological practices that doesn’t endanger the lives of workers?
Permanent solutions that address the problem from its very root ought to be explored. With cleaner fuels, stricter laws regarding factory smoke disposal and eco-friendly construction methods, it is the government’s responsibilities to get at work and make developments that result in actual changes without harming those who already have very little to their names. Therefore, it is an ask and an urge: dissolve the conflicts, give the workers their share, protect your citizens, clean the air.