NEW DELHI: Environmental change hits the poorest the hardest, experts say, and in India’s toxic smog-filled capital that includes the air people breathe.
In Old Delhi, the ancient heart of the capital, 39-year-old Rizwan pedals a rickshaw tricycle, transporting passengers and heavy goods through crowded streets often too narrow for cars, earning about seven dollars on a good day.
There is no escape from Delhi’s deadly smog that cloaks the city in a misty winter grey and chokes the lungs of its 30 million residents, making it one of the world’s worst capitals for air quality.
“My eyes burn … I am aware of the health risks but what else can I do?” said Rizwan, who uses only one name, panting hard to manoeuvre through traffic-clogged streets.
Levels of fine particulate matter – cancer-causing microparticles known as PM2.5 pollutants that enter the bloodstream through the lungs – often hit more than 30 times the World Health Organization’s danger limits.
Authorities in Delhi asked people last month to work from home and limit time spent outside to protect themselves from the poisonous air.
But Rizwan said his choice was to work or starve.
“I’ve left my village to come here, I have to work hard, it is a necessity,” he said.
“I am not educated enough to work in an office or do some other job. Either I can pedal a rickshaw or pull a cart.”
“THICK LAYER OF SOOT”
Adjoining Old Delhi is the modern city created when building expanded exponentially early last century.
New Delhi’s affluent Gulmohar Park neighbourhood lies just 10km south of the old city walls but it could be a different world given how people there live and cope with the smog.
With an air purifier machine buzzing reassuringly in the background, successful 31-year-old cinematographer Madhav Mathur starts his day by checking pollution levels on a WhatsApp group made by residents.
Source: CNA
