As the year ends, the air quality in the national capital plummets to a severe plus category, enveloping the city in a thick haze. With the Air Quality Index reaching an alarming level, residents are forced to wear masks and install air purifiers. Many opt to stay indoors, avoiding even morning walks. However, for daily wage workers, staying indoors is not an option as they have to expose themselves in the open air throughout the day to earn and feed their families.
Despite anti-pollution measures like the ban on construction and demolition activities under the GRAP-IV guidelines, daily wage earners are left with the fear that their children might go hungry due to the loss of income caused by these restrictions. The ban, imposed by the authorities to curb the “severe-plus” pollution levels (AQI above 450), has put a significant strain on those already living on the margins.
These workers are now worried that their children will starve due to the loss of livelihood.
Suman, a 45-year-old mother of two told PTI “If we sit at home, what will we eat? What will we feed our children?” She recently renewed her labour card with the hope of receiving government aid but she says it has been a futile exercise. “We don’t have government jobs where salaries come automatically. We survive on daily earnings, and without work, we have nothing,” she adds.
A thick grey haze engulfed the national capital on Tuesday, with AQI soaring to 488. Delhi’s air quality plummeted to the ‘severe plus’ category on Sunday, prompting authorities to impose Stage IV measures under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) on Monday.
These measures include a ban on construction and demolition activities, restrictions on truck entries except for those carrying essential items or using clean fuel, and the closure of schools. Offices have also been directed to effect changes for their employees.
For Babu Ram, a 63-year-old construction worker, the ban on C&D activities has exacerbated an already dire financial situation. He has a wife, son, daughter-in-law and grandchild to support, besides having to deal with a debt of Rs 3 lakh.
“There’s no pension for people like me. Schemes like Ladli Behna are riddled with corruption, middlemen take everything and we get nothing,” he says. “If I can’t work, my family won’t survive.” Similarly, Rajesh Kumar, a 42-year-old labourer, says his family in his village in Bihar depends on the money he sends home.
“I have not married yet because I have several responsibilities, including my sister’s wedding, which has left me with a debt of Rs 6 lakh,” he says.
“This happens every year, pollution cripples Delhi, but instead of solving the problem, the government creates more hurdles for people like us,” he adds.
Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana after harvesting the paddy crop in October and November is often blamed for the rise in air pollution in Delhi.
Punjab reported more than 400 fresh farm fires on Sunday, taking the count of such cases in the state this season to 8,404, according to remote sensing data.
The Punjab Remote Sensing Centre put the number of new stubble-burning incidents at 404, with Ferozepur accounting for 74 cases, the highest in the state, followed by Bathinda with 70, Muktsar with 56, Moga with 45 and Faridkot with 30.
On the same day in 2022 and 2023, the state reported 966 and 1,150 active farm fire events respectively, the data showed.
From September 15 to November 17, Punjab has seen 8,404 stubble-burning incidents, registering a 75 per cent dip in crop residue burnings over the corresponding period last year.
The state saw 47,788 and 33,082 farm fires during the same period in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
With inputs from agencies.
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Daily wage workers bear the brunt as Delhi’s pollution crisis drives them into hunger and debt
