Meet Delhi's pollution migrants, those who have left the city because of the rising smog levels

For 32-year-old Ragini Singh, the national capital was an attraction because of its Mughal architecture. With a keen interest in history, she found the city to be a perfect muse for those long evening walks through the Lodhi Gardens and other such places. The charm was bewitching for Singh, but the love affair was cut short. Her daughter was diagnosed with bronchitis. All of six, the young girl spent sleepless nights as her lungs waged a battle against pollution that was cruelly gnawing her, forcing the family to move to Goa.

"I could see my child withering away. She could not go out to play in the park because the air was so thick with pollutants. It made her sick. From a happy-go-lucky kid, I saw her turn into a cranky, irritable girl who had only medicine as best friends," said Singh.

"All of a sudden, Delhi seemed like a monster," she added.

After having lived here for seven years, she took the first opportunity her husband, Dilpreet, got from his company to move to Goa. In 2016, the family shifted base to Goa in hopes of a cleaner environment.

The Singhs are defining migration in a completely new avatar, one that has stemmed out of the need to breathe a cleaner air - Pollution Migration. And they are not alone. Couples with young children, and senior citizens are moving to other cities, willingly compromising on career, and life in a metropolis. Tier 2 cities that have still not gained infamy for pollution like Ahmedabad, Madurai, Goa, Bangalore, Pondicherry, and Cochin have become popular choices.

Delhi has earned the enviable distinction of being amongst the most polluted cities in the world. It's notoriously rising levels of air pollution in the past one decade has broken barriers year after year, with the world taking note of it.

Last year, during the 'great smog' in November, it recorded an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 999, way above the worst category - hazardous.

"As per our data, the movement between Madurai, Pondicherry, and other Tier 2 cities contributes to 25 per cent of our overall shifting, out of which the major share of shifting happens in the winter months," said Parth Narang, Category Manager, Packers and Movers.

"Who wants to live in a gas chamber?" asked digital consultant Sukriti Vajpayee who took the tough decision when her parents' health refused to improve despite regular medication. She spent most of her days taking her 67-year-old father, who is a heart patient, to a cardiologist. He wore a mask even indoors, but the coughing continued to persist. Vajpayee pressed the panic button when her mother too started falling sick regularly. "I tried every possible solution - air purifier, oxygen masks, and indoor plants. But, a gas chamber is death knell, and I was not prepared to risk my parents' health," Vajpayee reasoned. She shifted her parents to Goa and now shuttles between the two cities.

(Schoolchildren wear facemasks at an event to spread awareness about increasing air pollution in the Capital —file photo)

Unhealthy statistics

The World Health Organization (WHO), in its latest report on pollution, ranked 14 Indian cities among world's 15 most polluted cities. Kanpur was the most affected with particulate matter (PM) 2.5 levels in 2016, while Gwalior stood second in the chart.

Other cities like Delhi, Varanasi, Kanpur, Faridabad, Gaya, Patna, Agra, Muzaffarpur, Srinagar, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Patiala, and Jodhpur were also featured in the list. The study ranked 4,300 cities in 108 countries across the world.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of deaths globally and in the region as well. Air pollution contributes significantly to NCDs such as cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases and lung cancer. The national capital ranked sixth in terms of PM 2.5 with an annual average of 143 g/m3 in 2016. In terms of PM10, Delhi stood third in the world with its annual average of 292 g/m3.

Every year, during November, hospitals across Delhi register a minimum increase of 25 per cent in respiratory illnesses when crop stubble burnt in neighbouring states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh pollute the air. The worst affected are women and children.

Twinkle Tiwari is a full time blogger; Sachin Nag, a business analyst. The newlyweds have lived in the city for more than a decade. Three years ago, Tiwari started showing symptoms of an acute asthama. She was wheezing, coughing and had a nagging burning sensation in her lungs. Seeing his wife suffer, Nag started looking for job opportunities outside Delhi. "She had become lethargic. Even a remotely strenuous activity affected her breathing. We curtailed our social outings too. The toxic air worsened her condition," Nag shared. After six months of waiting, the couple moved to Bengaluru.

Like Tiwari and Nag, there are many others who are willing to take the plunge, risking their well-settled careers for a healthier living.

The pollution migrants

Content manager Riya Pati had everything going well for her- a thriving career and a social life, a happy family, and a successful husband. Her world came to a halt when her now seven-year-old daughter was forced to restrict herself indoors due to the polluted air. Misha was five, eager to be outdoor all the time, much like kids her age.

"I noticed that she coughed relentlessly whenever she came home after playing outdoors. Regular cough medicines did not work. A specialist told us that the polluted air in Delhi was affecting her health," she said. It was a tough transition that she made. "I consulted Deepak, my husband, and my extended family about shifting base to another city. We knew the challenges that lay ahead in starting everything from a scratch but it was decision which we could not delay," said Pati who now lives in Alwal, Hyderabad.

"It has become an annual phenomenon post-Diwali. We have patients as young as two-year-olds walking in with breathing troubles. The air is so unclean that it is not surprising when people complain of being afflicted with chronic conditions like asthma just because of what they are breathing in," said Dr Anshul Khetarpal, a Gurgaon-based paediatrician.

Wife of a British expat, Nicola, was distraught by the deteriorating health of her two daughters. One of them, who is now 10, was born with asthma, which worsened as she grew up in Delhi. Her three-year-old toddler, too, started suffering from bronchitis a year after she was born. It later took the shape of asthma. She lived in Delhi for 12 years, and shifted to Goa with her children in August 2017. "My youngest daughter was a healthy baby when she was born. However, she got bronchitis when she turned two. Since it affected the immune system, both of them also contracted pneumonia," she said.

"The unprecedented pollution level in the Capital is saddening. It is sad to see what people in Delhi have to go through on a daily basis. Though I am now based in Goa, I am still worried about my husband who breathes the polluted Delhi air," she said.

Vehicles, vehicles everywhere

According to the figures collated by the Delhi Economic Survey, the number of vehicles registered in Delhi has increased from 31.64 lakh in 1999-2000 to 103.83 lakh in 2016-17. The highest percentage increase observed in taxis was from 1999-2000 and 2016-17. During the same period, the percentage of increase was observed in all other categories of vehicles i.e. cars and jeeps; motor cycles and scooters, auto rickshaws, buses and goods vehicles.

This has automatically enhanced the pollution levels of Delhi. The emission of pollutants by these vehicles has gone up. There were 97.05 lakh registered vehicles in Delhi in 2015-16, which increased to 103.83 lakh in 2016-17.

However, a study conducted by Jawahar Lal Nehru University in late 2017, found that the Odd-Even formula, an initiative by the Delhi government to reduce pollution in the city, was not an effective step. It was later found out that most of the pollutants had biomass and residual of cow dung as composites, not fuel. The Delhi government was rapped by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in October 2017 when it decided to reinitiate the Odd-Even initiative for a week. The NGT had observed that the formula did not make any difference to the air quality after the last two times it was implemented by the government.

Delhi's Green Budget

Post-Diwali smog, that extends through the winter, has become an annual phenomena in the Capital. Year after year, frantic "high level meetings" are called and attended by worried officials to combat the situation. As the winter fades away, the pollution is less visible and the alarm over pollution is snoozed over the next 7-8 months.

Alarmed at the thick blanket of smog that smothers Delhi every year, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a multi-thronged approach to curb the rising pollution in the annual Budget of 2018-19, two years after its Odd-Even formula, to restrict vehicles plying on the road, failed to make an impact.

While Odd-Even was missing from the new slew of measures proposed in the Green Budget, it incentivised sops for using CNG, like 50 per cent concession in registration charges for CNG factory fitted private cars. With monsoon round the corner, the government is also gearing up to plant 20 lakh saplings, and develop six new city forests. It will also remove Mexican mesquite tree species known as 'Vilyatee Kikar' in the Central Ridge Area, between SP Marg and Vande Matram Marg, as part of its initiative to make Delhi 'Kikar-free'.

The Delhi government also launched an anti-smog gun campaign in February. The cannon sprays atomised the water, making the pollutants such as PM 10 absorb it, thus clearing the air. The campaign was launched despite the real-time data gathered by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee showing that during the experiment, the pollution levels did not fall much, and rather rose as the day progressed.

Anumita Roy Chowdhury, Head of the Air Pollution and Clean Transportation Programme, Centre for Science and Environment, feels that implantation of the schemes is the key to fighting pollution and it should not be restricted to a Delhi-NCR problem.

"The government has talked about giving alternatives to farmers for crop burning. The Union government's support was important to enable this solution for curbing air pollution. However, they will have to ensure it is implemented on a large-scale and quickly, so that we don't have face another bad winter."

"All these are knee-jerk reactions taken when the government sees things going out of hands. They need to have sustained and consistent steps, not implement just anything without any research," said Raghav Khannna, a marketing professional. A 'thoroughbred' Delhiite, as he once loved to call himself, Khanna is now a happy Bangalorean. Last November, he pulled out his two children - Sarika and Satwik, aged 7 and 11years respectively - mid-session, and moved to Bengaluru. "There was no second thoughts when I saw how the air was changing. We were constantly coughing, breathing heavily or experiencing burning sensation in our eyes. I knew that getting admission in the middle of session would be a problem but their health was at stake," he recalled.

To handle cases like Khanna - pollution migrants thinking of relocating just about any time - professionals in the business of moving and packing are doing more than just shifting. They are also lending a helping hand to such migrants. "With the alarming situation of pollution in Delhi, people are almost living in a gas chamber. We have seen good traction from southern cities like Kerala, Pondicherry, and Ooty etc. Mobility management experts help the families in an overall smooth transition. Starting from the area of living, to the kind of school, to aiding them in overcoming language barriers, everything is taken care of by us," said Shiivani Aggarwal, CEO, of one such company.

A safe haven?

Singh's daughter has recovered by more than 80 per cent while living in Goa.
In 2016, her husband moved back to Delhi due to work commitments. Though she agreed that it becomes difficult to manage sometimes, but "it is a very small price to pay for clean air," she said with a smile.

Measures taken to curb air pollution

• Strengthening the Pollution Under Control (PUC) testing norms 
• Implementing recommendations given by the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) 
• Technological advancements in the checking equipment connecting the diagnosis to the PUC 
• Rectifying ill equipped PUCs across the Capital

Highlights of the Green Budget

• Annual budget for 2018-2019 focuses on initiatives for cleaner environment
• Rs 53,000 cr allocated to such initiatives 
• 26 points programme under the Budget
• Programmes proposed by four departments — Environment, Transport, Power and Public Works Department
• Sops for using CNG
• Plant 20 lakh saplings across Delhi in monsoon
• Develop six new city forests
• Install solar panels over a 16 km cycle track
• Energy efficient LED lights under ESCO model to replace all street lights
• Purchase of 100 MW of Green Power
• Comprehensive Electric Vehicle Policy for Delhi
• 1,000 fully electric buses to ply on the roads