Don’t let air pollution cloud the success story of India’s economic emergence

India ranks as the third most polluted country globally and has the worst air quality among major economies. Many Indian cities regularly top global lists of the most polluted urban areas. The costs of air pollution are well known globally.

A recent study in Lancet, the medical journal, reported increased effects of PM2·5 on daily mortality with strong evidence for such an association in India.

Also read: Smog and us: Environmental movements need to lead our fight against air pollution

Air pollution’s impact on education is an overlooked crisis, comparable to the learning setbacks of the covid pandemic. In Delhi alone, when poor air quality forces schools to switch to online classes, students lose at least an estimated 267 million hours of effective learning annually.

This accumulates to a staggering 1.3 billion hours over five years. These massive educational disruptions threaten to impair students’ long-term potential. This comes at a particularly challenging time, as schools are still working to overcome unprecedented learning gaps created by the pandemic and India’s learning outcomes significantly trail global averages.

Every winter, as air pollution peaks, public discussion on the crisis intensifies, but this seasonal debate has failed to produce meaningful improvements in air quality.

What’s striking is that these discussions haven’t translated into organized public pressure for change. Instead, citizens have resigned themselves to accepting poor air quality as inevitable, which is a remarkable paradox in the world’s largest democracy.

Several commentators have noted action plans devised and successfully implemented by China, and contrasted it with India (see the accompanying chart).

In September 2013, China introduced a significant national policy to address severe air quality issues that included emission-reduction targets with a focus on key industrial sectors like coal, steel and cement, a regional focus on heavily polluted regions such as Beijing and Tianjin, new regulations for industry (stricter emission standards and cleaner production technology), an energy transformation by reducing coal consumption, and specific measures for the transportation sector.

Also read: India plans stricter quality standards to tackle air pollution

While India’s democratic system is often cited as an obstacle to implementing and enforcing a comprehensive pollution control programme like China’s, public pressure actually played a key role in the Chinese government’s action plan. The years leading up to it saw public protests and online activism over air pollution, particularly in urban areas.

China’s ‘airpocalypse’ controversy erupted when the US Embassy reported pollution readings that starkly differed from official Chinese data. Middle-class residents held demonstrations against projects they feared would raise pollution, even as social media, NGOs and citizens all pushed for greater transparency in the Air Quality Index (AQI), making PM2.5 a widely known yardstick.

Why hasn’t clean air become a major political priority in India, given its strong democratic traditions? The evolution of electricity access provides an instructive parallel. Initially, only the wealthy could afford generators, but eventually widespread public demand from citizens made electricity access a key election issue, with politicians promising free power to win votes.

In contrast, the clean air debate hasn’t gained traction. While affluent citizens can protect themselves with air purifiers and air-conditioned cars, those who rely on two-wheelers or use public transport remain exposed. However, if the electricity example is any guide, public demand for clean air could follow a similar path.

How can we accelerate this path? While stubble burning has dominated discussions, effective solutions likely require deeper structural changes, particularly in agricultural practices, minimum support prices and procurement systems. Meanwhile, several low hanging fruits remain unexplored.

India could significantly reduce pollution by bringing order to its chaotic traffic systems, enforcing stricter construction regulations and increasing its urban green cover. These simpler solutions offer immediate opportunities for improvement while we work on the more complex agricultural challenges.

Traffic chaos in Indian cities is a major source of air pollution. Despite significant investments in road infrastructure, average speeds in major cities remain below 20kmph. This slow movement is not just due to volume, but widespread disregard for traffic rules. Drivers routinely ignore lanes, travel in wrong directions and stop randomly.

When traffic needs to merge, it becomes a disorderly scramble rather than an organized flow. The constant starting, stopping and idling of vehicles creates far more pollution than smooth-flowing traffic would. Yet, surprisingly, the connection between India’s lawless roads and air pollution levels remains largely unstudied.

Estimates suggest that vehicles operating at low speeds can produce up to 4-5 times more emissions than vehicles moving at optimal speeds. Inefficient traffic signals, frequent stopping and starting, poor lane discipline and extended journey times all add to fuel consumption and put pressure on air quality. This is especially relevant in a fast-growing economy with dramatic increases in vehicle ownership.

Construction sites in India are also major contributors to air pollution due to poor practices. Even in premium areas with sky-high property prices, construction materials are often left uncovered, creating clouds of dust on nearby roads.

Basic pollution control measures like dust management, careful material handling, water sprinklers and waste disposal are rarely implemented. This problem is worsened by rapid urban development that has stripped cities of green spaces. Without adequate trees and vegetation to trap dust, our cities have essentially become mega dust bowls.

Also read: We need a standardized framework to track city-level air pollution

Addressing India’s pollution crisis requires strict enforcement of all regulations, not just environmental ones, through a balance of rewards and punishments. This challenge cannot be met by passing responsibility between different government agencies and departments.

It demands coordinated action across the entire system. Currently, even Supreme Court-mandated bans are openly flouted, highlighting a severe weakness in regulatory enforcement.

As India sets ambitious goals like hosting the 2036 Olympics, we must ensure that our environmental practices align with these high aspirations.

These are the author’s personal views.

The author is professor of economics at Ashoka University and head of Ashoka Isaac Center for Public Policy.