AIR POLLUTION AND INDIA

Air pollution has an effect not just on health but also it disrupts the functioning of a country. It reduces overall productivity and decreases the supply of labour. It all translates into elevated health expenditure due to rise in morbidities. 

According to study India suffered an estimated economic loss of 36.8 billion USD due to air pollution in 2019. Premature deaths due to air pollution caused a loss of 28.8 billion USD. 

The state-wise variation in economic loss ranged from 0.67% to 2.15% of the GDP. The low per-capita GDP states incurred the maximum loss. The worst-affected states were Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. The national capital, Delhi, bore the highway per-capita economic loss due to air pollution, followed by its neighbour state of Haryana. Thus, we can infer that the impact of air pollution is more evident in north India.

Deaths

In 2019, air pollution was responsible for around 1.67 million deaths in India. This number is equivalent to 17.8% of the total deaths in the country. Out of those, 0.98 million deaths are attributable to ambient particulate pollution, while household pollution caused 0.61 million deaths.

Positive 

Going by the figures, there has been a 64.2% decline in the death rate due to household air pollution between the years 1990 and 2019. India has been instrumental in taking state- and national-level initiatives to ameliorate household air pollution. The Indian government launched Unnat Chulha Abhiyan in June 2014, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana in May 2016, and National Infrastructure Pipeline Project that has contributed to this decline. 

Negative

However, there is a 115.3% elevation in the death rate attributable to ambient particulate pollution and a 139.2% rise in those attributable to ambient ozone pollution in the same period. 

      {International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW)}              

However, in January 2019, the Indian government launched the National Clean Air Program (NCAP), a five-year action plan to curb air pollution, build a pan-India air quality monitoring network, and improve citizen awareness. The program focuses on 102 polluted Indian cities and aims to reduce PM2.5 levels by 20-30% over the next five years. The analysis conducted by researchers from IIASA and CEEW however suggests that NCAP needs to be backed by a legal mandate to ensure successful ground-level implementation of emission control measures. In the long-term, NCAP also needs to be scaled-up significantly to ensure that rapid economic growth and meeting NAAQs are aligned. 

The significance of the research also lies in the fact that are the people aware about the problem of air pollution and the policies formulated by the government for controlling air pollution. 

A public perception study designed to find out the level of awareness. The comprehensive survey revealed that while awareness of the adverse effects of air pollution is very high, most people seem to think that they need to do nothing at the individual level. This perception needs to be addressed. It is only when people make this a priority issue will politicians wake up and take action,” said Debi Goenka of Conservation Action Trust

A survey conducted by the Lung Care Foundation showed that there was massive unawareness regarding air pollution among public in the national capital region (NCR). It also found that people were unaware about government initiatives and necessary precautions taken to control high levels of pollution. 

The failure of the Indian government in mitigating air pollution is caused because of many reasons like limited budgetary allocations, limited planning abilities at local level, lack of focus and year long commitment, lack of coordinated effort of federal government and local authorities, too little and too late actions, weak local and regional capacities, inability to put check, corrupt governance, lack of use of scientific methods, unchecked and illegal mining, lax enforcement of rules and also lack of accountability. 

That is why despite of so many policies and initiatives the problem of air pollution in India still persists. And India still is one among the most polluted countries in the world. 

The needs as per the study include strong leadership, ambitious actions and strengthening local and regional capacities. The central and state governments must do more to align air quality, climate change, and sustainable development goals in a resource efficient manner. 

The study aims at how India has addressed the situation, on ground implementation of policy actions, need of the hour, learnings from the world, citizen and government links, how the policies failed to prove their worth and also the role of the people. 

Air Pollution and Policy actions

Air pollution is the fifth largest killer in the country, according to Global Burden of Disease. Urban air quality data according to the World Health Organization (WHO) reconfirms that India appears among the group of countries with highest particulate matter (PM) levels. Of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, 13 are in India, says the database. Delhi is among the most polluted cities in the world today. The rising trends in population growth and the consequent effects on air quality are evident in the Indian scenario. Over the years, there has been a massive-scale expansion in industries, population density, anthropogenic activities, and the increased use of automobiles has degraded the air quality in India.  

WHY POLICY ACTIONS? 

1) Major Global health challenge to which children are particularly vulnerable. 

2) To reduce air pollution emmisions and exposure to pollution, action is needed at local, national and international levels. 

3) The actions can contribute to achieving multiple other Sustainable Development Goals, including climate change mitigation. 

 

SIGNIFICANCE OF RESEARCH

Air pollution and climate change are closely linked because many of the sources of Green house Gases responsible for climate change are also major sources of air pollution. CLEAN AIR IS A HUMAN RIGHT AND A NECESSARY PRE CONDITION FOR ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE AS WELL AS ACHIEVING MANY SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS.

The continuous degradation of ambient air quality in the urban centres of India demands effective measures to curb air pollution. Though various policy measures are being introduced by the Government of India (GoI) to reduce the vehicular and industrial emissions, the extent to which these measures are implemented is questionable. The lack of infrastructural facilities, inadequacy of financial resources to implement advanced infrastructural innovations, difficulty in relocation of the industries from the urban centres even after mandatory court decisions, and above all, the behavioural patterns among people in accepting the green solutions are some of the crucial impediments on the road to environmental protection that our country seems to be struggling to overcome today. 

In developing countries the implementation of the policies for mitigation of air becomes difficult because initially laws are weak or not applied, secondly the vehicle emission standards are less stringent and coal power stations more prevalent lastly increasing Informal settlements. 

Air pollution problems reflect governance failure because cities transpotation, infrastructure has not kept pace with their growing population. 

The research aims to look into the scope of air pollution, reasons behind the policy failure, initiatives taken by the government, problems in the grounds of air pollution, policies and models of foreign countries and how the citizens and government both being the stakeholders play their respective roles for mitigation of air pollution. The research is for a social impact to look into the awareness among the citizens about the plans, policies and innovations made by the government. 

Everyone has the RIGHT TO BREATHE CLEAN AIR but does everyone care about the air? This research aims to look how we being the citizens pledge to control air pollution.