‘Help Delhi Breathe’: Need for Ground-Level Action After Odd-Even

People gathered at Jantar Mantar as part of ‘Help Delhi Breathe’, an effort to go beyond the odd-even plan.

On a chilly afternoon, when many chose to stay indoors, some decided to brave the winters and join the citizen awareness drive ‘Help Delhi Breathe’. As the odd-even plan culminated in Delhi, a group of volunteers and NGOs gathered at the Jantar Mantar road asking the government to do more to clean Delhi’s air.

The fifteen-day trial period of the odd-even plan not only went off smoothly, but quite unexpectedly, the move also garnered applause for Kejriwal from people. In a press conference held on 15 January, Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai claimed that pollution levels in Delhi were down by 20-25 percent. A gleeful Kejriwal has promised the citizens of Delhi a rollback of the odd-even plan in an improved avatar.

Need for a Regional Approach

‘Help Delhi Breathe’ has come up with a charter of demands that includes legal framework of vehicle emission standards, phasing out of Diesel-run vehicles by 2020, improving the public transportation system, finding solutions to local sources of pollution, and most importantly take Delhi’s neighbouring states on board.

Dwelling on the need for a regional approach, Vikrant Tongad of SAFE NGO talked about the need for collaboration between centre and states. Delhi, for that matter simply can’t afford to ignore its neighbours – Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Perhaps therein lies a challenge as well. “NOIDA for instance has no pollution monitoring station and therefore any master plan whatsoever can’t overlook the sources of pollution located in neighbouring states of Delhi,” said Tongad.

Local Problems

Problems, however, don’t lie just at the government level; well-thought policy falls flat when it is not implemented at the ground level. Ashutosh Dikshit, who heads URJA (United Residents Joint Action), a People’s Action Group comprising Resident Welfare Associations of Delhi shared the challenges one confronts at the ground level.

Merely spreading awareness subverts action on the ground. A local problem probably starts circulating on WhatsApp, but the one who has to solve this is probably a junior municipal official. He’s not on WhatsApp, and at the end of the day, you’ll end up running a photography contest amongst you. The good thing about odd-even plan was that it made awareness actionable on the ground. That’s something phenomenal.

Ashutosh Dikshit, Head, URJA Group

A simple thing like that of digging a pit for composting (disposing off biodegradable waste) may become a herculean task as different RWAs may keep on delaying the matter for no particular reason. Just like residents of a locality may not be comfortable with building a public toilet near their park, they raise eyebrows when approached seeking permission for a pit to be dug near their park!

Experts Happy with Odd-Even Plan

While IndiaSpend in its latest report may have indicated 15% rise in PM2.5 levels in Delhi from 1-15 January, pollution experts are in no mood to write off the odd-even plan completely. Speaking with the The Quint, Anumita Roy Chowdhury, Executive Director (Research and Advocacy), Center for Science and Environment said, “Even at 20%, vehicles are still the second-largest source of pollution. Peak levels (of pollution) were not as high as those seen during previous years.”

“Expecting sudden change would be an unrealistic expectation altogether,” asserts Roy Chowdhury.

Even after the CNG order, it took six to seven years for its impact to be visible in Delhi. Here we are talking about a span of merely fifteen days.

Anumita Roy Chowdhury, Executive Director (Research and Advocacy), Center for Science and Environment

An Appeal From an Expat

Jeff Smith, associated with air quality monitoring service ambiencedata.com, shared his ordeal when he came to India in 2007. Seven months after moving to Delhi, Jeff and his wife almost lost their two-year old daughter, Anushree, who had to be hospitalised for almost 48-hours. Their daughter today is mildly asthmatic, the only respite being that she is not on any medication since the last two years.

In an emotional appeal, Jeff Smith has asked the government to phase out Bharat Stage-6 diesel by next year itself. “It shouldn’t be a problem as the automobile companies are already complying with Euro-6 norms. It’s not unreasonable to ask for”, said Smith. The Centre has announced 1 April 2020 as the date for implementing stricter BS-6 vehicle emission norms.

Lack of Enthusiasm?

As the proceedings of the citizen-led initiative came to an end, somewhere the thin crowds on the Jantar Mantar road also narrated a story of its own. The event which was publicised on Facebook had reflected around 5000 likes, but only a few hundreds had gathered there.

As an intern, I had gone to Jantar Mantar in 2012 when Anna Hazre had launched a mass agitation against corruption. A person had to jostle hard to find space even to stand straight. Once described by Arundhati Roy as “Delhi’s little showroom for democracy”, discourse may have changed at Jantar Mantar, from corruption in 2012 to pollution in 2016. Hopefully our attitude will also change.

Also read:
Is Delhi’s Odd-Even Experiment Inspiring Enough for Other Cities?
After Odd-Even Plan, Need to Focus on Other Sources of Pollution