Air Pollution - Question of Cities

Move the air pollution needle to smaller and neglected cities

Conversations and policies on air pollution are mostly centred on Delhi and Mumbai but other cities and towns have been facing toxic air too. These are, at best, footnotes in national conversations on air pollution. Authorities here go in for…

Can India’s National Clean Air Programme ensure good air and environmental justice?

The ambitious National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), in its framework and practice, missed the idea of people’s participation or ‘atmospheric citizenship’. Despite…

Air pollution hits women informal workers hard and different

Like other aspects of cities, air pollution too affects women and men differently. Besides the usual respiratory ailments associated with poor quality…

City averages not good enough to measure air pollution

The average Air Quality Index shows only the central or typical value. It cannot be an accurate representation of air quality in…

Lahore’s dangerous smog brought disease and death – and touched diplomacy

Through most of November, Lahore and Multan, among other places in Pakistan, suffered record-breaking air pollution that saw Air Quality Index in…

Wake-up call: India’s air pollution-related deaths among highest in the world

As winter sets in, the air quality in most cities in India turns critically poor. Triggered by climate change, the situation worsens…

Urban spaces and mental health: The important correlation we miss

In the race to construct cities with mega projects, the relationship between the built environment and people’s mental health is rarely acknowledged.…

The silent epidemic: Air pollution infiltrates our lungs, our lives, say people

No one has been spared by the effects of air pollution. A nagging cough, throat infection, lung ailments, breathing problems, and tiredness have become common. Doctors have been seeing a rise in patients with the same symptoms and yet cities…

Let’s breathe better air, said cities and fought air pollution

As people in cities across India struggle to breathe through the smog and haze that now characterise winter months, a number of…