A public perception study designed to find out the level of awareness — cause, effect, precaution and solution — of air pollution showed that 90% of the people interviewed across highly polluted cities have heard of air pollution but lack awareness about the causes and effects.
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The study was conducted in highly polluted areas like — Delhi-NCR, Kolkata, Patna, Lucknow, Varanasi, Amritsar, Singrauli, Dhanbad, Raipur, Korba, Chandrapur, Angul, Nagpur, and cities becoming rapidly polluted like Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai and Chennai. At least 5,000 people were interviewed as part of the study, which found that residents of Delhi had the highest level of awareness. Delhi was closely followed by Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune and Kolkata.
Although awareness was higher in tier-1 metro cities, with Delhi-NCR leading the way, understanding of technical terms such as AQI, PM2.5 and PM10 ranked at 54%, 29.6% and 17.8% respectively.
The study also revealed that the age group of 18-25 years “always” seeks information on air quality.
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The study was commissioned by the Clean Air Collective, an unbranded network of more than 80 civil society organisations, citizen groups and experts working on the issue of air pollution across the country. It was conducted by CMSR Consultants, a multidisciplinary research group.
“This comprehensive survey reveals that while awareness of the adverse effects of air pollution is very high, most people seem to think that they need to do nothing at the individual level. This perception needs to be addressed. It is only when people make this a priority issue will politicians wake up and take action,” said Debi Goenka of Conservation Action Trust.
He was speaking about people’s initiatives to control pollution — which only looked at walking whenever possible (59.7%), tree plantation (40.2%) and reduced energy consumption at home (36.2%).
Diwali night
On Diwali (November 7), air quality in Delhi-NCR plummeted to ‘hazardous’ as PM2.5 levels hit 999 in many part of the city, after residents flouted the Supreme Court’s 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. deadline for bursting crackers.
An urban emissions study revealed that close to 5 million kg of firecrackers were burnt in Delhi.
Ashutosh Dikshit, the CEO of United Residents Joint Action, an apex body of Delhi’s RWAs, said, “This exhaustive survey reaffirms the fact that people are aware of air pollution. However, looking at the violations that happened on Diwali night in most parts of north India, I feel that people do not fully believe in stated causes of air pollution and its proportionate impact. They also do not see air pollution as a significant contributor to their existing or future health conditions. There is a desperate need for a national-level campaign aimed at addressing belief systems and change in behaviour.”
Govt. intervention
While the Environment Ministry is yet to notify the revised National Clean Air Action Plan for India’s choking cities, towns and villages, there is a high demand for immediate government intervention.
More than 80% agreed that a mass media campaign needed to be launched by the government, polluting companies should be fined as per the law, the government should bring in stricter and newer laws to control and mitigate pollution, and also put pressure on power stations and industries to switch to cleaner processes.
Yogesh Ranganath of Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives said, “This [survey] highlights a big problem in the way information is disseminated currently, which is entirely based on AQI by the CPCB [the Central Pollution Control Board] and very less emphasis on disseminating the underlying constituents in an easy to access and use manner. Measures to be employed for each type of pollutant are different and affect various vulnerable groups differently.”