Clean Air Is My Birth Right And I Shall Fight For It!

Right to a clean environment is constitutionally guaranteed. And as freelaw.in says, per Article 48A “The State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country.”

As the various State governments and Union territories begin to vie for the Swachh Bharat rankings, everybody focuses on literally powdering their noses and nothing else. Some main roads and streets will look clean and few traffic islands will begin to wear a green look with artificial flower pots. And of course, we will also have a few walls getting painted with Swachh Bharat Slogans.

It was during one such drive a couple of years ago that I noticed Navi Mumbai getting painted literally pink with flamingo pictures all around and suggested to the Municipal Corporation to tag the city as the Flamingo City. It worked. The municipal commissioner promptly wrote to the Union Urban Development Department (UDD) seeking permission to tag the city as Flamingo City for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. The Centre did not respond, probably because the State was not under a double engine government. Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition was running the show. Anyway, we environment lovers have decided to tag our city as the Flamingo City, hoping to get some importance to the environment as well, under the Swachh campaign. But our hopes were dashed to the ground as the key wetlands which are the flamingo abodes remained dirty, unfit for the pink birds.

We must remember here that apart from the UDD, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) is also supposed to be part of the Abhiyan. Thus, they ought to be taking the pollution under check measures into consideration for the Swachh rankings. Or does the pollution part also limited to clearing the garbage in some parts of the cities?

Right to a clean environment is constitutionally guaranteed. And as freelaw.in says, per Article 48A “The State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country.”

Article 51A(g), states, “It shall be the duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers, and wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures.”

I presume every citizen means the government as the government is nothing but a collectiveform of citizens.

Globally, the UN has also taken up the cause of the right to good environment, says the IUCN - International Union for Conservation of Nature – the platform is a membership Union of government and civil society organisations.

The right to a healthy environment has developed gradually since the 1970s when it was first alluded to by the 1972 Stockholm Declaration. Its first Principle states: “Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being”.

The Stockholm Declaration was a catalyst for the recognition of the right to a healthy environment at the national and regional levels. Quoting UN Special Rapporteur David Boyd, IUCN says, the right to a healthy environment “is included in regional human rights treaties and environmental treaties binding more than 120 States. It enjoys constitutional protection in more than 100 States and is incorporated into the environmental legislation of more than 100 States. In total, 155 States have already established legal recognition of the right to a healthy and sustainable environment.

Whether the law guarantees or not, the right to clean air, water and ambiance is our democratic right. A dictatorial society may survive without free voice, but not sans the air and water. We shall talk about this a bit later.

Having discussed the backdrop, let us turn to our dismal performance on the Air Quality Index (AQI) front. More than half of the hundred cities with bad AQI are in India. Delhi has the dubious record of ranking number 1 in air pollution (if not anything else). It does not give me any joy when I see tricolour vectors in the AQI rankings charts. But the Centre and State governments do not seem to be bothered about it much, other than indulging in blame games as if they were fighting over distribution of GST and other financial resources.

When you look at the governments – from local, panchayat, municipal, state and then the Centre – Delhi emerges as the top government much as the Supreme Court is the top court. Yes, I am discussing a primary school lesson because the Centre has shirked its primary responsibility. In BJP’s language, even the double engine governments do not discuss and do anything about the clean environment. From Jaipur to Lucknow to Guwahati figure in the AQI list. At the time of writing this piece at 8 in the night on Sunday, Bapatla and Tenali (of Andhra Pradesh) ranked 32 and 33 respectively in the chart. Chirala was at 38. So, big or small, all cities and towns are affected which in turn means you and I are all taking the hit. Hence, I shall fight, you should fight, together we all should raise our voice (even it is choked by throat infection)

The US-based Health Effects Institute (HEI) says in its "State of Global Air (SoGA) 2024," report that as many as 464 children under the age of five die daily due to problems related to breathing caused by air pollution. But, it does not concern any government or political party. Even the opposition appears to be just scratching the surface when they discuss the Constitution and the BJP’s assault on freedom. The BJP governments do not seem to go beyond a customary plantation of saplings and photo-ops. Clean City Green City is every city’s motto, yet we do not have any signs of implementation or policies towards that.

Tackling air pollution does not require any rocket science. It just requires an analysis of all the ingredients that worsen the AQI. Remember, during the lockdown we all discovered that nature healed itself with clean skies, water and the wild life having a great fun. Let us as ourselves: Can we not achieve this kind of a clean climate without resorting to the lockdown?

A dictatorship such as the one in China has realised the importance of clean air and taken concrete steps to check the shooting AQI in Beijing. Today, many media outlets are discussing the Beijing model of clear skies when they report about the hazy Delhi and Mumbai. The Government can easily get a report from our embassy in Beijing and see what all we can do to improve the Delhi air. Paradoxically, the Centre does not want to devolve powers of policing to the Delhi State government on the pretext of the city being the National Capital and that it is home to the world’s embassies. In any case, the Centre has usurped all powers from the Delhi State government. The Centre, hence, cannot keep blaming the State government for the pollution.

Apart from the automobile and industrial pollution, stubble burning in the States around Delhi is also a major cause of the winter pollution that descends on the National Capital Region. But for Punjab, BJP-run states surround Delhi. Don’t forget the pollution from coal-based thermal power units. So, politically it makes the Centre’s job easy to ensure a cohesive, coordinated action. Punjab will fall in line if all other States act. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will also join the drive since it has to face the electorate in Delhi in the New Year.

This killer pollution demands a special Parliament session, a CMs’ conference and a national emergency plan of action. Can the courts not take suo motu notice of the blatant attack on our right to life as the governments fail to act? They must!

(The columnist is a Mumbai-based author and independent media veteran, running websites and a YouTube channel known for his thought-provoking messaging)