Poor air quality in Delhi prompts students to stay back home

Despite schools reopening, poor air quality in Delhi has held students back and many parents have decided against sending their children to schools. The national capital on Monday evening recorded the Air Quality Index to be 392 – well into the hazardous zone.

As such, many schools reported attendance below 40% on the first day back due to parents fears over the hazardous air and the COVID-19 risks. Some schools had resumed classes for higher grades, pupils aged 14 and below were allowed back for the first time on Monday as part of a staggered reopening. However, many schools recorded poor attendance due to the poor air quality.

Ashok Agarwal, national president, All India Parents Association, expressed frustration with the lack of enforcement and political will to improve Delhi’s air. “After COVID-19, air pollution has emerged as a major threat for public health, particularly for children and senior citizens.”

Environmentalists said both federal and state governments were both reluctant to take tough steps because they feared loss of support among their voters. The Central Pollution Control Board chairman Tanmay Kumar, in a letter to the state and federal authorities, expressed regret that they were not taking sufficient measures to control pollution and asked them to curb all air polluting activites.

Randeep Guleria, director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, told India Today that exposure to pollution was causing more harm than the use of tobacco or of smoking. “If you have higher levels of air pollution then the chances of having more severe COVID and dying from it goes up,” he explained. Moreover, airborne particles of pollution can cause cardiovascular and respiratory diseases such as lung cancer.

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The drastic drop in air quality during the past week has been attributed to farmers violating a ban on stubble burning in neighboring agricultural states and people ignoring a ban on fireworks to celebrate Diwali. Many supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) opposed a blanket ban on fire crackers and blamed the opposition-ruled state government in Delhi and Punjab for worsening air pollution.