Trapped and helpless in Delhi
How families are fighting capital’s air pollution horror
When a toxic smog darkened the skies over the Indian capital last weekend and air pollution peaked to its highest levels this year, Nabeela Moinuddin and Fareeda, living on opposite sides of the economic divide, were panic-stricken for their families.
Moinuddin corralled her husband, their two children and two housekeepers into a bedroom of their elegant New Delhi apartment in Nizamuddin East, one of the capital’s most upmarket localities, and switched on two indoor air purifiers at full power.
In the nearby Nizamuddin Basti, a maze of narrow lanes around a Muslim shrine, Fareeda, who uses one name, locked her children in their one-room house but was powerless to do anything about the pollution streaming in from a large, shutter-less window.
Divided by income and their ability to fight the toxic air but united in their suffering from it, the 36-year-old mothers are among more than 20 million people trapped and helpless in the world’s most polluted capital city.
Both are uncertain about exactly what to do next and fearful of their children’s health as Delhi’s air quality index, which measures levels of tiny particulate matter, has remained in the “hazardous” category for most of this week.
This year, Moinuddin and her husband Danish, a partner in a management consultancy, ordered two air purifiers on top of the two they already had. Then they bought a dozen potted plants — areca palms, aloe vera, money plants and snake plants — to help clean the air, a hand-held air quality monitor and four masks.
Cleaner pastures
They spent around Rs25,000 (Dh1,295), a considerable expense by Indian standards but a fraction of their monthly household income that exceeds Rs1 million.
Some people like former Indian cricket star Ajay Jadeja, who also lives in Nizamuddin East, simply packed up and left for the cleaner seaside resort of Goa along with his wife, two children and his mother. Only his dogs were left behind, surrounded by plants.
For Fareeda and her family, leaving Delhi’s debilitating smog isn’t an option. Between her part-time job at a non-profit and her electrician husband’s work, they make around Rs12,000 every month — just enough to keep their household running.
Their small home is difficult to secure from the elements. It has only one window, a large grilled opening that has no shutters.
Still, as Delhi’s air quality plummeted last Sunday, Fareeda took evasive action. She ensured the younger of her three children — a four-year-old girl and a nine-year-old boy — stayed indoors. If they did venture out, it was only with a handkerchief tightly tied around the nose and mouth.