‘Playing in foul air amounts to putting kids in gas chamber’: SC, HC express concern over children’s health

A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran accepted the submission by amicus curiae Senior Advocate Aparajita Singh that making children participate in outdoor sports activities in peak pollution months amounted to putting them in a “gas chamber”.

“The learned amicus has…raised the concern for most of the schools having their sports competition in the months of November-December, which is the peak period for poor…air quality. The amicus submits that this would amount to virtually putting the school-going children in a gas chamber.

“We, therefore, request the CAQM to take into consideration this aspect of the matter and issue necessary directions to the concerned states so that the sports competition activities could be shifted to safer months,” the Bench ordered.

Also on Wednesday, the Delhi High Court remarked orally that the government of Delhi was “shirking its responsibility” by allowing sports activities in the period between November and January.

The court was hearing a petition by 11 schoolchildren who are seeking rescheduling of the outdoor sports calendar to avoid the months during which the air quality in Delhi is often in the ‘severe’ zone (AQI higher than 400).

Justice Sachin Datta issued notice and sought a status report from the Delhi government on the steps it has taken this year, as well as the steps it intends to take for the next year, to address the issue.

The court also sought responses from the Delhi government’s Directorate of Education (DOE) – which schedules zonal, interzonal and state-level tournaments, and coaching camps and selection trials – and the School Games Federation of India (SGFI), which schedules national-level tournaments, on how the school sporting calendar for the upcoming year can be adjusted.

The schoolchildren have submitted that the scheduling of sports tournaments in Delhi’s hazardous air forces them to choose “between their fundamental right to life and education”.

After counsel for petitioners senior advocate Shyel Trehan submitted that the tournaments could start in April “when the air is better”, standing counsel for Delhi government Sameer Vashisht told the court that “summers are extremely hot” – but “if SGFI will schedule the dates (avoiding the months of high air pollution in Delhi), certainly Delhi will follow… They (students) cannot be deprived of it (participation in sports)”.

To this, Justice Datta observed, “They cannot be deprived of damage to lungs, is it? I am sorry to say, you are shirking your responsibility. Do you recognise there’s a problem (in the air quality) in these months (from November to January)? You recognise that…You plan in a way from the future year, that there is minimal number or no fixtures during this period. For Delhi, you must start your games immediately after the Boards (exams).”

In the Supreme Court, the CJI-led Bench took note of a submission that construction workers who have been out of work for a week on account of Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), were yet to get subsistence allowance.

The court said that it had already expressed concern about labourers being deprived of their livelihoods when GRAP measures were put in place, and directed “all NCR states to take instructions with regard to payment of subsistence allowance and inform the court on the next date of hearing”.

SPORTS TOURNEYS POSTPONED IN NCR

THE CAQM on Wednesday convened a meeting with representatives from the central Ministry of Education, governments of NCR states, Sports Authority of India, and NCR State Pollution Control Boards to consider measures to safeguard the health of children from air pollution in November and December.

ACTING ON SC’s observations, the watchdog wrote to the governments of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh asking them to take “immediate and appropriate action to ensure that physical sport competitions scheduled in the months of November and December may be postponed keeping in view the air quality trends prevailing in the area where such events are scheduled…”.

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