On Sunday, the national capital awoke to a sepia cityscape, its skyline erased under a pall of toxic air. The Air Quality Index (AQI) breached 400 in several areas — “severe” yet unfortunately routine for this time of the year. Later in the evening, however, something unusual happened. Hundreds of citizens braved the smog to show up at India Gate — parents clutching their children, students with handmade banners, elderly citizens, masked and resolute, demanding clean air. In a city where the acrid smog has smothered what was once a beloved season, the gathering was a much-needed act of affirmation — that people will no longer be passive sufferers and that clean air is not charity from the state but a right of the citizen.
Other nations have shown what sustained public pressure can achieve. Beijing faced a similar crisis a decade ago. Yet pressure from citizens, relentless monitoring, and political will turned the tide. There are, of course, differences between China and India — in this country, policy must navigate diverse and often conflicting interests. But other countries have also shown the way — like North Macedonia, a year ago, where huge popular protests against air pollution led to a clean-up plan that is being implemented. Here, if the India Gate protest is to be more than a symbolic moment, it must ensure that pollution is afforded the same urgency, and put to the same accountability test, at least in the political framing, that is reserved for inflation, corruption or unemployment. The battle for clean air cannot be left to policy papers and court orders alone. Only when citizens refuse to inhale institutional apathy will Delhi, and India, reclaim the air they deserve to breathe.
