The families fleeing Delhi to escape deadly smog
Saurabh Bhasin has always loved Delhi, the city of his birth.
As a child, he eagerly awaited the winter months, which offered a brief respite from the grueling heat of Delhi’s long summers.
However, over the years, his longing for winter transformed into dread. Air pollution in the city escalated to hazardous levels between October and January, shrouding the skyline in a toxic haze. Everyday activities, like walking outside or even playing with his child at home, began to feel both stressful and unsafe.
In 2015, Bhasin, a corporate lawyer, filed a petition in the Supreme Court on behalf of his toddler, alongside the fathers of two other six-month-olds, requesting a ban on firecrackers. These are predominantly used during festivals and weddings.
“The alarming deterioration in Delhi’s air quality, caused by factors including traffic congestion, construction dust, industrial pollution, and seasonal firecracker use,” his petition read, “has led to dangerously high levels of air pollution.”
Though the court issued regulations to limit cracker use, Delhi’s air continued to worsen.
In November 2022, Bhasin’s daughter was diagnosed with asthma. Earlier this year, he and his family moved to Goa, a coastal state nearly 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) away, where they now live.
This, however, is not an option for the millions of people in Delhi who cannot leave due to their livelihoods and must endure the smog.
But a small group of people with the means to do so are choosing to leave, either permanently or temporarily during the winter months.
Bhasin is one of them.
“We know that moving [his daughter] to Goa doesn’t guarantee her asthma will go away,” he explains. “But we’re certain that if we had kept her in Delhi, her condition would have worsened.”
His concerns are valid. Over recent years, between October and January, Delhi’s air quality has often deteriorated to levels deemed hazardous by the World Health Organization.
The Indian health ministry has stated that poor to severe air quality increases morbidity and mortality rates, particularly among vulnerable groups like children, the elderly, and those with pre-existing medical conditions.
Their guidelines recommend avoiding outdoor activities when air quality reaches “severe” levels and advise vulnerable individuals to stay indoors and minimize physical exertion.
Bhasin considers these measures insufficient. “You can either invest in a solution now or keep putting a band-aid on it and pay the price for generations,” he says.
A 2022 study by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago found that air pollution can shorten the lives of people in Delhi by almost 10 years.
Rekha Mathur* is among those who have chosen to temporarily leave every year. In the winter, she relocates to the outskirts of Dehradun, near the Himalayan foothills.
She recently had a baby and now wants to stay away longer from Delhi, which struggles with bad air throughout the year. But her husband has to stay back for work, which means Ms Mathur is the child’s sole caregiver for months, and their son only gets to see his father occasionally.
“Our whole life is built around Delhi. I would have never left the city, if not for the worsening air pollution,” she says.
Ms Mathur says she is unsure how long the arrangement can continue as her son grows up and needs regular schooling.
It worries her that pollution is not just restricted to urban centres like Delhi now, but even smaller, scenic cities like Dehradun.
In Delhi, the city she longs to return to, the crisis has been a matter of debate for years.
Over the past four decades, India’s Supreme Court has ordered the relocation of polluting industries, the conversion of commercial diesel vehicles into cleaner alternatives, the closure of brick kilns and the speedy construction of bypasses and expressways.
This winter, as smog returned to Delhi and adjoining regions, authorities imposed measures such as restricting non-essential construction, halting demolition activities, shutting down polluting industries, and limiting the number of vehicles on the road.
Yet, air quality hasn’t improved much. Residents express frustration that the onset of winter triggers an intense debate around air pollution every year, but hardly yields results.
Journalist and writer Om Thanvi, who lived in Delhi for more than 15 years, says there is no magic wand but to find a viable solution, the government must treat this as a public health emergency.
Mr Thanvi moved to the western state of Rajasthan in 2018 to teach, planning to return soon. But now, he says, he has decided to stay there permanently.
“I had to use an inhaler in Delhi. But since I have moved here, I don’t even remember where it is,” he says.
He advises others who have the means to leave the city until things improve.
“I miss Delhi’s vibrant cultural scene, but I don’t regret leaving and I don’t plan to return.”
But for millions of Indians, this is not a choice.
Sarita Devi migrated to Delhi from Patna city years ago for work. She irons clothes for a living, spending hours outdoors with her cart through winter and summer.
“I can’t go back to Patna because I can’t earn money there. And even if I did go, it wouldn’t change much for me,” Ms Devi says.
“I visited for a festival a few days ago and the air there was equally hazy,” she adds, highlighting the fact that the air in many north Indian cities is highly polluted.
Mr Bhasin says that when they moved to Goa in June, leaving behind friends and family was particularly difficult.
But now, he is confident that the decision was right.
“We are no longer willing to pay the price with our child’s health.”
