Air pollution adversely impacting the country’s health and wealth

It is a testament to the control that the Narendra Modi regime enjoys over public discourse that very few public figures have expressed their dismay over the lethal levels of air pollution in the national capital and its surrounding region. Against this backdrop, former Puducherry lieutenant governor Kiran Bedi spoke her mind on the issue. On the face of it, she seems to be playing to the gallery, but a closer look suggests that it is not so. She suggested a ban on installation of air purifiers in government offices and official residences. She argues that officers must experience the impact of air pollution directly if they are to understand the urgency of the problem. She tweeted, “How officials who are working in offices with purifiers, driving in a car with purifiers, and living in a house with purifiers know the air quality outside? Also All at official costs? While many are suffering from chest congestion, running noses, sneezing and coughing. And even fever... feeling low on energy… All need healthy air. It’s a right (sic).” How good it would have been if the first woman IPS officer had included politicians too in the list to be deprived of air purifiers.

Ironically, the pointed remarks come a day after she publicly appealed to the Prime Minister to personally intervene in the matter. That an appeal has to be made to a popular leader with humble origins is a sad commentary on the governance structure: it is a system that has ceased to resonate with the urgent needs of people; it also makes the most powerful man in the country helpless. It is impossible to believe that Modi is not aware of the situation, but then such is the system that it is not even able to take effective action. Meanwhile, the damage done to the people is growing by the day. In an interview with a newspaper, Christa Hasenkopf, Director, Clean Air Program at the Energy Policy Institute, the University of Chicago, said, “Air pollution is now considered the single largest external threat to human life expectancy because of its scale, reach and continuity. According to the Air Quality Life Index we generate, long-term exposure to current pollution levels cuts about three and a half years from the average Indian’s life.”

What sets air pollution apart from other major health risks, like tobacco use, high blood pressure or unsafe water, is that it exposes nearly the entire population to its effects continuously, from early childhood through old age, she said. In other words, toxic air offers ugly levelling: you need not be a smoker to suffer major health risks! Hasenkopf highlighted an old estimate that said that air pollution costs India around three per cent of its GDP. This implies that without this menace, the country could have registered double-digit growth this fiscal. This assertion comes in the wake of the recent observation made by the Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran, “Now we can say comfortably the full-year growth will be either 7 per cent or to the north of 7 per cent rather than to the south of 7 per cent… Basically, we are saying the growth rate will be at least 7 per cent for 2025-26.” It is time the Modi government and the governments under his party start focussing on governance and secure the nation’s health and wealth.