Air pollution not only bad for health but for economy too; costs nearly double of India’s fiscal deficit

Divakar Vijayasarathy

In the words of the Father of our nation, “action expresses priorities”, irrespective of our statements, what we do means where our focus is. Covid has taught us what can be done with collective deliberate action. India, at least statistically, has been at the forefront of Covid management by accounting for just about 10% of fatalities with nearly 18% of the global population. While the paranoia around Covid has ensured sustained collective action despite incurring huge economic costs, a similar yet far lethal pandemic has been left to thrive and plague humanity for decades now- Air pollution. Globally ambient (outdoor) and household air pollution are estimated to cause over 8 million premature deaths and one in every five deaths is from India. To give a perspective, India has 1.26 lakh deaths owing to Covid so far however in 2019 alone we have had 1.6 million deaths from air pollution.