By Ravjot
On November 9, a citizens’ protest was called at India Gate against the increasing pollution and high AQI levels in Delhi. I responded to the call and participated in the protest along with over 500 other people. Several people were detained in buses by Delhi Police shortly after the protest commenced, and police asked the rest to protest at Jantar Mantar within the barricades. Most people didn’t move.
While public officials in the state government can protect themselves with air purifiers, like the 15 worth Rs 5.45 lakh of public money recently purchased for the Delhi Secretariat, it is the masses who suffer the health consequences. The imperialist model of development causes destruction and displacement. The effects of this model of development can be seen in the floods and cloudbursts that ravage the Himalaya every year. It can be seen in the pollution in Delhi. In 2023 alone, according to global research organisations, in just Delhi, more than 17,000 people died from the pollution. It can be seen in the floods that devastated Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir earlier this year. It can be seen in the large-scale deforestation of Hasdeo Aranya — “the lungs of India”.
This “development” is not just ravaging India. Its effect can be seen in the burning of the Amazon, in the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef, in the loss of the Congo basin, which used to be the world’s second-largest rainforest, and in numerous other examples. As students who are studying about society and how society functions, and why and how the things around us happen, I feel it is important to study the root causes of this destruction of the Earth, and challenge this model of development.
We must study the alternative people-centric models of development put forward by Adivasis of Bastar in their Janatana Sarkars and indigenous models from around the world.
Often, the state ends up protecting corporate interests. Yesterday, too, the state’s actions did not protect citizens. The police detained women and men after sundown; they dragged people away. There were no female constables in our bus; they only arrived after this was pointed out to the police. These are not the actions of a state that prioritises the rights and health of its citizens.
The writer is vice president, Bhagat Singh Chhatra Ekta Manch and a student of Library Sciences at Delhi University
