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I am a mother to a boy who suffered from high fever and chronic cough problems from the age of 3. We had to take him to the doctor at midnight. He is 7 years old now but still cannot participate in games and sports due to the weak respiratory system.

Like any other mother, my primary concern is my child’s health. We have consulted with many renowned doctors of Kolkata. All of them said that the problem is very common. I am also suffering from frequent asthma attacks. But no doctor has a proper suggestion for this. According to all the doctors, the problem is in the air.

In recent days, doctors have started talking about the impact of pollution on human health. The way air pollution is affecting our lungs is beyond imagination. So, being a concerned mother did some study on air pollution and found out that One in eight deaths in India was attributable to air pollution in 2017 and in 1.24 million, the deaths caused by air pollution are more than the death caused by other diseases like diarrhoea, tuberculosis, HIV, or malaria.

From various reports posted by the Government and other institutions, it is very clear that air pollution is a serious problem. But it is not possible for me to fight this alone. Thus, we have to work on it together and make the earth a better place to live for our kids.

I was a regular mom, earning, spending, pampering my kids. A few years back I noticed that the the air quality began to get intolerable every October to December.

In 2018 the Gurgaon administration had to cancel school on Children's Day and my kids were so upset as they had been very excited about the fun at school. It struck me that day, what lousy adults our generation has been. Our kids' festivities were cancelled because we could not give them clean air.

Clean air is not a luxury, it is a basic need. Since then I have been actively working towards a cleaner environment. I started a 4-way waste segregation in my condominium, started composting, planting trees. I created green spaces on my balconies. I absolutely stopped single use plastic, became aware of my carbon footprint, reduced shopping to just essentials. I started a crockery bank for my community and became a Warrior Mom.

I'll be damned if I remain a hapless bystander while my children are being forced to breathe air that is toxic and unhealthy. I'm trying to influence my fellow citizens to change their lifestyle and the government officials in-charge of environmental to take better policy decisions.

I will make a difference or die trying.

I'm an ENT Surgeon and Allergy Specialist in Gurgaon, India.

To my dismay, however, she looked frightened and with her upper lip wobbling said… “if global warming comes and the earth explodes, I want to die before you.” Her fear sliced through me, and eight years later as I write this, I can still feel the pain just as keenly. All my life, like thousands of others, I have done the ‘’right thing” — whether it’s not buying fast food, takeaways, plastic toys, a car, segregating my garbage, refusing my daughter many times things she craves because “it’s not good for the planet”— still, there seems to be not even a glimpse of a better future.

Could it be because we’re doing it all wrong? Holding ourselves accountable when industries and government get away with zero accountability? TPP plants all over India have created dystopian landscapes — of white ash on land where nothing can grow anymore. Winds scatter the ash far and beyond. Soiling the water. Clogging the air. Still, alternate energy is a distant dream. The appetite for wider roads can never be satiated — our roads are still congested despite having sacrificed thousands of homes and farmlands to make them. A robust public transport system is still a pipe dream. Plastic is ever prevalent — in the form of flimsy bags in spite of so much awareness. And however much all of us continue to do the right thing, we cannot win unless industries and the people we vote into power are held accountable.

Why do we demand so much virtue and selflessness from our children when we don’t have the energy to push the people who are meant to serve us? While forests are still giving way to mines, trees still chopped for architectural updates, water bodies still drained for development projects. Let’s never call our children entitled or spoiled again. We’ve stood by and allowed their legacy to burn and now expect them to sacrifice their childhoods and stand on the frontlines. We always say that we’ll stand in front of a bus for our kids, right? Well, that bus is hurling along — at top speed — coming for them. Come, hold my hand. Let’s stand in its path.

Via letmebreathe.in

Where I live (Gurugram) the air quality is very bad. The intensive development of apartment buildings in suburban areas without proper public transportation pushes people into cars and reduces green space. Over the last decade we have lost thousands of trees in the name of development.

Recently as more groups join to demand for clean air, the municipal corporation pretends they care, but there is no real action. I became a mom five months ago and air quality has become a reason to stay indoors against our will for most of the winter. If we had a choice we would have liked to move into safer spaces with cleaner air but we cannot afford to move. We have new jobs and COVID times have been difficult too.

My daughter was 5 when a friend told us to buy air purifiers for our home (in Gurgaon, India). We didn’t know much about the air pollution, except that it was there, and pretty high. This friend, a journalist, had just had her second baby and both children suffered from asthma.

With the air purifier came a monitor, not terribly accurate, which told us the pollution levels in our home. This was the first time pollution was quantified for us. That year, in November, as crop burning season along with firecracker season coincided and all of North India was enveloped in an extensive opaque cloud for a few weeks. We watched the numbers with horror and clustered around the one air purifier, not knowing anything else about how pollution works, only that the foul smelling air exceeded all limits.

Now I know more about air pollution. Everyone is forced to know. We check the AQI and PM2.5 numbers multiple times a day. I know that children growing up in this pollution have black deposits of particulate matter in their lungs - black lungs like smokers when they grow up. Lifelong, irreversible damage that causes dozens of diseases that are well documented.
How can I allow this damage to be done to my children? Which mother would let her child get hurt to this extent? We don’t have a choice but to be environmentalists in India - fighting at individual level with reducing waste, cycling, buying less. Additionally, we are organising to fight at a system level as Warrior Moms.

So much of our mindspace goes in worry, stress and anger about air pollution, so much of our resources are lost to healthcare, lost productivity, disease. Fossil fuels are not worth it. Not by a long margin.

I dread the festival which I loved as a child, as now it invariably brings on serious episodes of wheezing and respiratory illness. I'm surprised that the authorities don’t take serious note of this unnecessary pollution. My old parents suffer even more. One time my father had to be hospitalised as there was so much smoke. He develops strong palpitation during Diwali every year, due to the sound and smoke. As a pet parent, I also fear for my dog who is traumatized by the sound.