Roti, kapda, makaan, good air

Despite mention in manifestos, pollution hasn’t become a campaign issue. It is a reflection of low traction at grassroots level

IT IS HEARTENING that environmental, climate change, and air pollution issues have featured in the 2024 Lok Sabha manifestos of most top political parties. But is it among the top priorities or guarantees for parties or candidates? This brings us to another question: Will we ever witness actual improvement in air quality without it becoming a people’s movement or a political issue?

Manifestos have long been shaped by what people truly want — and, in turn, the issues that would turn into votes. The rotikapda-makaan from a few decades ago became bijli-paani-sadak, which in the recent past turned to job opportunities and anticorruption. Whatever the issues may be — local, regional, or national — they are mostly rooted in one thing: A sustainable society for a sustainable nation.

But air quality has not made it to the list of people’s priorities, and, by extension, to the top-priority lists of parties. At least, not yet. Inadequate information and poor efforts by the local government bodies in disseminating knowledge on the effects of air pollution, among others, have made air pollution the most incurious and unconcerned issue in our country. This could have serious repercussions in years to come.

To most people, poor air quality has become an “obvious environmental status”. A section of the intellectuals see it as a manifestation of a growing, developing nation. They believe that economic progress cannot be compromised, no matter the quality of air we breathe or the environment we leave for the next generation. Even this line of thinking shows that air pollution should be taken more seriously than it is right now. According to a 2019 study, the yearly deaths attributable to air pollution translate to an economic loss of Rs 2.7 lakh crore, that is, around 1.36 per cent of the country’s GDP. Another recent survey has revealed that the Indian GDP would have been 4.5 per cent higher if air pollution had grown 50 per cent slower each year.

To give more context, American economist and Nobel Prize recipient Simon Smith Kuznets made a graphical representation in 1971 of the relationship between economic development and environmental degradation. He showed that as economic development proceeds, environmental degradation keeps increasing and reaches a maximum. After a “level” of economic development (per capita income), economic growth leads to environmental improvement.

Here, one may argue that by following Kuznets, state and central governments are heading in the right direction and taking the right approach. A day will come when further economic development and associated activities will not harm our environment; rather, they will help improve it, as people may perceive. But the issue is, how do we identify this “level” or threshold of economic development? How far would we have to go?

And most importantly, how late is too late?

For air pollution to become a mainstream issue, it has to become a political agenda. For it to become a political agenda, it has to find its place in page-one news and prime-time discussions regularly. But for that to happen, people will have to truly start caring about air pollution and the danger it poses to our lives and the lives of those who will inhabit this planet after us.

It is a strenuous task, but not an impossible one. What it needs is public awareness in its true sense. It is the job of academicians, scientific communities, experts, scholars, and bureaucrats alongside local governmental bodies to make common Indians realise that clean air is also a fundamental right like clean water, health, food, shelter, etc.

Since it’s launch in 2019, the government has released over Rs 1,000 crore for the effective implementation of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) — a commendable step in achieving better air quality. Even with its loopholes, NCAP still has ample scope for ameliorating air quality.

One of the most effective ways would be to recognise that, in addition to core research and scientific activities, a significant portion of the fund should be allocated for on-ground activities aimed at pollution reduction. These activities should further be rooted in the air pollution programme having a federal structure, where policies and strategies need to be decentralised and diffused into microenvironments through district and local bodies.

Second, every ward under the municipalities or municipal corporations and every village under the blocks should be thoroughly scrutinised by the respective local bodies to find out the pollution source in the vicinity as well as the scope for air quality improvement. This information should then be disseminated to the people who are residents of the area. They should be made to understand the importance of identifying micro-level hotspots, which is of utmost importance in order to mitigate macro-level pollution.

Third, there should be specific plans to identify open areas favourable for the ventilation of air — and hence the pollutants — open water bodies, green cover for every ward in a city, and all of them should immediately be marked as green zones and restored. These measures will ensure that air pollution, as an issue, directly connects to every single individual in these microenvironments.

Regular outreach or public awareness programmes should be conducted at the municipality or block level, and facilitated by local experts, academicians, and teachers. These initiatives must aim to disseminate knowledge about environmental pollution and provide guidance on both actions to take and actions to avoid.

The demand for clean air needs to be spread to far-flung corners of the country through mass movements. If prolonged power cuts, disruptions in water supply, unpaved and damaged roadways can unite us to protest and remonstrate against local governmental bodies and before the political leaders seeking votes, then why not for clean air?

For air pollution to become a mainstream issue, it has to become a political agenda. For it to become a political agenda, it has to find its place in page-one news and primetime discussions regularly. But for that to happen, people will have to truly start caring about air pollution and the danger it poses to our lives and the lives of those who will inhabit this planet after us.

C R Sasikumar