Students survey Delhi’s pollution

NEWDELHI:Students of two government schools and a private school of Delhi have conducted a detailed survey on air pollution, as part of their air quality education project titled ‘Train for Clean Air: Clean Air for Kids’.

The schools involved were Sarvodaya Vidyalaya in Mansarover Garden and Vasant Vihar and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Kasturba Gandhi Marg.

The students, as part of their survey, found out how air pollution was monitored, what it does to people and what can be done to mitigate it. The survey, which started in December last year, was presented before a jury on Thursday.

One group of students from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan surveyed people from six different localities in Delhi to understand how people perceived air pollution, while another group from the same school visited air monitoring stations to see how pollution was measured. Students of Sarvodaya Vidyalaya at Mansarover Garden spoke to doctors to understand health concerns .

Students from Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, Vasant Vihar, spoke to doctors at Safdarjung Hospital to find out if there was a particular time when respiratory complaints and pollution spiked .

“Air pollution is a global problem. It needs to be dealt with in three phases. In phase one, we increase awareness. In the next phase we make lifestyle changes in our individual lives. The last and important phase is advocacy. We need to advocate for policy changes and changes in our society,” said Craig Dicker, the cultural affairs Officer at the US Mission to New Delhi, and one of the driving forces behind the project.

The programme was organised by Clean Air Asia, an NGO which specializes in air quality issues, in partnership with US Embassy and Delhi’s environment department.