Earlier this month, dangerous and record breaking amounts of smog filled Delhi. The levels of PM 2.5 particles were 28 times what is considered a safe level. Visibility was severely impaired. Protestors filled the streets in masks and schools were closed for three days. The pollutions is most dangerous for the elderly and the young. Children are bearing the majority of the effects of the pollution. The article talks about two children in particular, one from a very poor family and one from a wealthy family. Both couples spend their nights watching their children sleep and cough, hoping they survive until the morning. The do anything they think will help them breath easier, even resorting to steroids but they can’t do much other than watch and hope. As the winter goes on the circumstances will just get worse as the city’s homeless burn more and more in order to keep warm.
The article made the point that both these families were affected the same by the pollution because their was no real way to filter out the particle from houses and that it didn’t matter it you were rich or poor in this situation. In reality, it does matter because the rich family has the means to leave the city while the poor family have no choice but the stay and hope that the pollution improves before it takes the life of their daughter. It is difficult to know what to do about the pollution situation overall because so much of the population depend on fires to stay warm in the winter and it would be impossible and quite probably a death sentence to take that away from them.
Two Children, One Rich, One Poor, Gasping for Air in Delhi’s Smog
