The playgrounds of New Delhi schools were emptied. The rowdiness of the children gave way to silence, and dead leaves covered the playgrounds. At the entrance to the Sarvodaya Vidyalaya public school in Defense Colony, located in the south of the capital, only two guards are dozing in their little hut. Almost all of the city’s schools were thus deserted. Faced with the toxic cloud that has enveloped the Indian capital for several days, the authorities ordered the closure of schools on November 3. First, classes moved online. Then the winter holidays were simply brought forward by a month.
“Breathing in this city is like breathing into a huge pot filled with dust that goes up into your nose and mouth”tries to explain Aaryan Sehgal, barely 12 years old, who attends a private school, which has also switched to distance learning. “Without air, we suffocate, but in Delhi, at the moment, it is the air that is suffocating us”breathes the teenager, whose bronchi are distinctly taken.
The air in New Delhi is unbreathable. Like every year, with the arrival of winter, the rate of PM2.5 – these fine carcinogenic particles which enter the blood and lungs – displays levels which can go up to thirty times the recommendations of the ‘World Health Organization. From November onwards, New Delhi experiences peaks in air pollution fueled by agricultural burning in neighboring states, industrial emissions and road transport, combined with cooler temperatures and the absence of wind, which leaves pollutants behind. to the ground and prevent them from dissipating.
“Real Murder”
And the youngest are on the front line: in the capital, nearly one in three schoolchildren suffer from asthma and airway obstruction. Children are more vulnerable because some of their vital organs, such as the brain and lungs, are not fully developed. Their respiratory rate is also higher than that of adults, so they inhale more toxic air. The situation is such that the Supreme Court denounced the “real murder” of the ” youth “, urging the executive of the capital and neighboring states to do more to protect populations from this scourge. A silent killer, air pollution is estimated to have caused 1.67 million premature deaths in India, including nearly 17,500 in New Delhi alone.
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