A study published in The Lancet Planetary Health highlights that states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Rajasthan, with lower per-capita GDPs, face the largest economic losses due to poor air quality. The air quality affects health, resulting in more and more workers taking their days off because of lung infection and other health issues. Further, according to the Reserve Bank of India, by 2030, as much as 4.5% of India’s GDP could be at risk due to lost labor hours resulting from climate crisis-related issues, including extreme heat and air pollution. Another study in the Lancet showed that nearly 12% of all deaths in Delhi can be attributed to short term PM2.5 exposure (the fine particulate matter most associated with air pollution).
Even after these points are put forward by the media, air pollution does not seem to be a topic of concern or a political topic at the recently concluded Delhi elections.
According to the Data Action Lab for Emerging Societies (DALES) post-poll survey in Delhi, only 24% of respondents believe that “parties are serious about solving air pollution”. Why isn’t it more of a political issue?
There is speculation that it is not considered to be important as there are more pressing issues like the identity politics. However, a survey conducted across states as soon as the air pollution hit the country suggested that more than 55 percent of household members were suffering from air pollution inflicted health conditions and these conditions in some cases were also severe.
Yet despite these effects, citizens can’t cope with the enormity of the challenge. When asked about their “primary method of coping with air pollution,” approximately 24% of respondents admitted to no coping strategy at all. Another 28% of respondents mainly used passive strategies such as not stepping outside of the house or keeping doors and windows closed (very few homes have sufficient sealing to prevent fine particulate matter). This means that less than half of respondents use an active strategy such as an air purifier or wearing a mask as the primary strategy to combat air pollution.
The problem is that even if we consider this to be taken seriously and look at it as a crisis, the parties will just blame each other, and we would arrive at no consensus regarding the steps to be taken regarding not just this but any crisis for that matter.
Montek Singh Ahluwalia wrote of the 1991 balance of payments crisis and subsequent economic reform that bureaucrats, experts, and even political parties reached a “working consensus” that “extended beyond the Congress party and made it possible for the reforms to be carried forward by subsequent governments.”
