Delhi air pollution: Parents caught between health and education as crisis shuts schools

Government regularly closes schools to protect children from toxic air, but parents accuse officials of ignoring the root causes

With a handful of rocks, Sandeep Sunar is aiming at a target in the narrow lanes of his slum, amid the din of children playing street games in one of the poorest areas of the Indian capital.

The 15-year-old and his friends have been following the same routine since the government shut schools indefinitely after dangerous levels of air pollution engulfed New Delhi last week.

“Our schools are closed because of the air pollution, but we don’t have phones to attend the online classes,” Sandeep told The National. “I miss my school, but we are enjoying the break.”

Sandeep Sunar, 15, spends his days playing with other children in Sanjay Amar Colony. He cannot take online classes as he has three siblings but only one smartphone at home. Taniya Dutta / The National

The government has moved classes online to protect children from the smog, which experts say has become a public health emergency in the city of 22 million. But many families cannot afford electronic devices and internet bills, leaving their children receiving no formal education.

“The courts and the governments are disconnected from the ground reality,” said Pavitra Sunar, Sandeep’s mother. She has four school-age children.

“They have no consideration for the poor. They neither care about the health nor the education of our children,” the 34-year-old said.

Ms Sunar argued that the “rich” and “elites” were making decisions to shut schools without considering the plight of people who barely make ends meet. The family live in a one-room house in the densely populated slum Sanjay Amar Colony, surviving with the bare minimum of facilities and hardly any electronic devices. Her husband Shobbahadur Sunar works in a hotel, earning 15,000 rupees ($178) a month.

Delhi's India Gate war memorial shrouded in smog. Reuters

“We have only one smartphone at home but four school-going children,” Ms Sunar told The National. “My eldest daughter is top in her class at maths. She needs to attend her classes but that means my other kids miss their classes because only one child can use the phone at a time.

“I cannot even write my name, but I want my children to study, to learn discipline and manners. How will they learn if they do not go to school?”

New Delhi has seen a gradual deterioration in air quality since late October – an annual autumn and winter phenomenon in the world’s most polluted capital. But the smog suddenly worsened last week as low temperatures gripped the city, bringing a layer of fog that mixed with pollutants and smoke from crop-burning on farms.

The pollution level reached 490 on Monday on the government's scale. Experts say air quality readings between 400 and 500 are equal to smoking 25 cigarettes a day. The concentration of PM2.5 – fine particles in the air blamed for lung and heart diseases – reached 527 microns per cubic metre, more than 100 times the safe limit set by the World Health Organisation.

Pavitra Sunar, 34, talks to her 15-year-old son Sandeep Sunar, who is missing his online classes as the family has only one smartphone. Taniya Dutta / The National

The city is polluted throughout the year, but the crisis is made worse by farmers in states around the capital burning the stubble of harvested crops to prepare their fields for the next planting season. The problem is compounded by toxic smoke from firecrackers set off during Diwali and emissions from vehicles and industries that become trapped in fog during October and November.

The Supreme Court has criticised Delhi officials and India's central government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for their failure to curb the crisis. It ordered them to take all possible measures to bring down the pollution levels and to shut educational institutions.

The Delhi government has regularly closed schools to protect children from breathing toxic air. But the decision to shutter classrooms year after year is not sitting well with many parents who call it a cosmetic move and accuse the government of ignoring the root cause of the pollution problem.

Parents told The National that frequent and long absences from school were hampering their children’s development.

“My husband goes to work, and I work at the shop. I cannot sit with my children and see whether they are studying, attending their classes or working on their notes,” said Dolly Chaurasia, who runs a small store in the Sanjay Amar slum.

“Closing schools and moving classes online is not going to solve this crisis. Instead, it will further impact the children because they will lose their classes. At least in school, they sit and listen to the teacher, they are disciplined.

“For authorities it is easy to take such reckless decisions because solving the pollution crisis is not their priority.”

Tejas Chaurasia (in red jacket) spends his time playing cricket on the streets since the government shut schools. Taniya Dutta / The National

Schools and colleges have also been shut in Delhi’s satellite cities of Noida, Gurgaon and Faridabad. Bula Chakraborty, the principal of St George School in Greater Noida, told The National that the long closures would severely impact the physical, social and psychological development of the children.

“There are children who come from poor backgrounds or whose parents are not educated. Many have more than one child but may not have extra laptops or smartphones. It affects their studies,” Ms Chakraborty said. “They shut schools every year but this cannot be a solution.”