How urban India is learning to live with air pollution

A thick layer of smog covered Delhi the day after Diwali as the city’s air quality dropped to the ‘very poor’ category, with 27 monitoring stations reporting alarming levels of pollution. Earlier, the 2019 World Air Quality Report had found India was the fifth worst among 98 countries in terms of average PM2.5 (particulate matter 2.5 microns or less in diameter) concentration in the air, doing better than only Bangladesh, Pakistan, Mongolia and Afghanistan.
With air quality rapidly deteriorating in the national capital, the sale of air purifiers and face masks is on the rise again. In fact, according to market analysis firm Renub Research, the air purifier market in India is expected to expand at a massive CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 28.5 per cent between 2023 and 2030.
In the new pollution season in the capital, some shops are noticing a change in clientele. “An autorickshaw driver and his wife came in the other day to buy an air purifier worth Rs 5,000. They said that with a brother diagnosed with lung cancer last year, preventing the disease was a better investment than treating it,” said Vijay Malhotra, owner of Vijay Electricals in north Delhi, which sells air purifiers ranging from Rs 4,000 to Rs 15,000.
“I have also had many new customers this year who had been postponing buying an air purifier for years,” added Malhotra.
Last year too saw a post-Diwali surge in the sale of air purifiers. Swiggy Instamart registered a 3,233 per cent increase in searches for air purifiers in November 2023 than the same period the previous year.
Indeed, fighting pollution is turning out to be an expensive affair. A recent report by strategic advisory firm Dalberg Advisors—in partnership with Clean Air Fund, a philanthropic foundation tackling global air pollution, and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)—found that air pollution costs Indian business to the tune of $95 billion (Rs 7.99 lakh crore) every fiscal year.
While there are no studies to estimate how much it costs individuals in terms of health expenses, preventive health interventions and loss of productivity, many have been sharing stories of their stress and worries on social media. “I need a loan to buy enough air purifiers for my house. The good ones are so expensive, almost Rs 40,000 each. The rest will only work if you keep all doors closed. And what about the car? A decent car air purifier costs almost Rs 20,000,” laments Priyamvada S., a 38-year-old resident of Delhi and Instagram user.
Doctors have long been flagging the rise in patient count with respiratory issues, particularly the young. “It is shocking to find someone young being diagnosed with lung cancer, and the figures are rising. Air pollution is directly responsible for it, and we must take steps to ensure we have the right to breathe clean air,” says Dr Ankit Jain, an oncologist with Apollo Cancer Care in Delhi.
Meanwhile, the dark humour online is that perhaps we are now staring at a future when health insurance for pollution-related distress and loans for anti-pollution supplies will be the new normal. Given the average 350 mark in Delhi’s air quality index, while anything above 50 is considered harmful to health by WHO, it might well be.
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