Delhi’s homeless at highest risk, but are least equipped
NEWDELHI: “I am feeling a strange burning sensation in my eyes,” says 40-year-old Dhanno, bent over a smoke-filled stove, cooking dinner for her five children and husband who live with her in a small slum cluster, surrounded by garbage on one side and a busy parking lot for buses on the other, opposite the Kashmere Gate Metro station. Asked if she would want to visit a doctor for her eyes, she smiles and says “this is no major issue. It will be fine soon.”
While the government has declared a health emergency after air pollution across Delhi reached alarming levels — the air quality index (AQI) in Delhi escalated to 494 on Sunday, the worst level of pollution since November 2016 — a large number of the city’s residents worriedly resorted to anti-pollution masks for the outdoors and air purifiers for their homes.
The poor and homeless, however, are uncertain how to react.
Sarika,35, who lives with her husband and two children in a slum next to the Kashmere Gate Metro says “my six-year old son has been coughing for the last one week.” Speaking about whether she intends to buy a mask for him she says, “I do not know anything about masks.”
Experts say those living closest to the streets are at the highest risk of suffering from health My children have grown up playing problems. “It has been estab- in mud and dirt. This is normal lished that people close to the for us,” she says. main roads are at the highest risk Fifty-year old Suresh who has since they have maximum expo- been living in a tent at Kashmere sure to pollutants,” said Dr Jugal Gate for the past 25 years, says Kishore, director, head of department, that “it is impossible for us to calculate community medicine, when the pollution is high Vardhman Mahavir Medical College or low. If we start wearing masks and Safdarjung Hospital. now, we will become an object of
“The best solution for those on ridicule among our people.” streets would be to relocate them There are several on the to less polluted areas, away from streets though, who feel no difference traffic junctions,” said TK Joshi, in the air. Twenty-five year environmental health advisor to old Seema who is busy putting the central government. her six-month-old son to sleep on
But Dhanno says concerns the pavement next to AIIMS is over the ill-effects of pollution are perplexed when asked about pollution. reserved mainly for the rich. “My child feels very cold “Those who live inside air-conditioned in the night. I just need enough homes are bound to feel blankets to cover him up,” she uncomfortable in this weather. says.