Hundreds of protesters were seen protesting in front of India Gate in New Delhi and were demanding the government to take immediate action against the increasing Air Pollution in the capital city of the country.
Children and adults were seen in the protests.
Some of the banners that were brought by the protesters read out “Give back blue skies”, “Our kids are breathing poison”, “Clean air is my birthright” and “I can’t breathe”.
As of November 6, 2019, the AQI (Air Quality Index) of New Delhi is 177. On November 5, the AQI of New Delhi was at 324, which is “Very Poor”.
Vimlendu Jha, an environmentalist that is leading the protests, said, “This is a citizens’ protest. This is primarily to register our anger and opposition to the government’s apathy. We have been hearing political parties blame each other for air pollution in Delhi for several years but at the end of the day, Delhi has become a gas chamber.”
Jha added, “Every year, Delhi becomes a gas chamber in November and we stop talking about it by December. We don’t want the government to inform us that Delhi is very polluted, we want a solution. It is a collective failure as it is the responsibility of the state and central government to resolve the issue.”
Gas masks have also been handed out to the residents of New Delhi so the health of the residents won’t be affected.
A boy, whose identity was not shared with the public, said they received a mask from an NGO.
His older brother said they couldn’t afford a mask like this, but thanks to an NGO, they got one.
AQI in India went sky high on the day of Diwali, in which New Delhi had an AQI of 999 during the celebration.
Stubble burning in Haryana and Punjab, along with Diwali cracker-bursting also caused a lot of damages to the environment.