This Diwali, A Mom Demands ‘The Right To Breathe’ For Her Daughter

This Diwali, my nine-year-old daughter and I’ve decided to gift samplings along with mithai.

The countdown to Diwali has always been associated with the beginning of pleasant autumn mornings, when the air is cooler and the tea cup in morning feels warm, not hot.

As a child, I eagerly counted days to Diwali as soon as the effigy of Ravan was burnt on Dussehra. The wait for Diwali was full of endless to-do lists: buy firecrackers, visit friends, Diwali lights, diyas, rangoli designs ideas (the unspoken competition of who makes the best rangoli) and of course, our homes inadvertently becoming “mithai ki dukaan”. On the day of Diwali, we eagerly awaited for Lakshmi puja to be over quickly so that we could burst some crackers.

After Diwali, there was the mandatory illness due to allergies.

Now that was my magical childhood. Magical despite the pollution as childhoods often are presumptuously magical.

My motherhood has a different story.

Come autumn, I enjoy the mornings from a distance, as though looking out the window while reminiscing. I stare outside, thinking how much trouble it will be to manage my daughter’s breathing issues. She will miss out on dance and sports due to it. When she is in school, I have to ensure that I work with a maximum 20 minutes drive to school, as the numerous emergency calls from school due to my daughter’s breathing issues are scary.

My to do list for Diwali still begins after Dussehra. Now, it includes: friends to visit, gifts to buy, rangoli design, and most importantly stocking up on masks, mosquito patches and inhalers.

Am I blaming Diwali for pollution? Am I blaming the change in seasons? Am I saying that it is the pollution we cause that makes us sick?

Am I blaming the farmers for burning stubble that fills the Delhi air with unbearable smog, clogging our lungs and making children sick?

The toxic gases and particles emitted from bursting firecrackers are more dangerous.

We are not alone when it comes to fireworks. The 4 July fireworks in the US emits the equivalent of 50,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

However, cultural celebrations are not the lone cause of pollution.

Industrialisation without consideration for environment, decrease in number of trees per capita, increase in urban density of population, rapid urbanisation with environmental disregard, and mobility of population are among the prime reasons for India’s poor record as one of the world’s highest carbon dioxide emitters.

The difference between reasonable restrictions and blanket ban is the degree of trust put in citizens to be responsible humans. The demand for clean air or even the Right to Breathe is because somewhere, over and over again, our government has failed to give us holistic economic development.

Thanks, to the Supreme Court’s ban on firecrackers, no one will buy and sell firecrackers in Delhi. It is a breathing respite. But there will still be buying, selling and burning of firecrackers . There will also be pollution on the other 364 days. 

I have an urban jungle in my house and balcony. Even though having greenery in the house comes with the fear of a mosquito-friendly existence. The added electricity bill due to air-purifiers makes me guilty of consuming electricity by burning fossil fuels in order to have clean air.

Perhaps now is my turn to demand Right to Breathe (clean air!).

For now, we are gifting plants on Diwali, along with sweets, as my nine-year-old feels that’s the best gift.

(Prachi Pratap lives in New Delhi with her Indo-American family. She is an entrepreneur manufacturing bronze art. She also has a social enterprise reviving and selling ethnic Indian wear. She is founder of web-based platform connecting non-profits called Ngo Express. She has done history (hons) , BA LLB and MBA. The views expressed above are authors own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)

(Breathe In, Breathe Out: Are you finding it tough to breathe polluted air? Join hands with FIT in partnership with #MyRightToBreathe to find a solution to pollution. Send in your suggestions to [e-mail] or WhatsApp @ [phone])