Pollution by the rich in India is making the poor sick, research says
Connecticut / Canberra / New Delhi: Australian, American and Indian environmentalists have revealed in a recent study that millions of poor people in India are not only getting sick but also dying from the pollution spread by the rich.
The study found that many goods are manufactured on an industrial scale in India, but the vast majority of buyers belong to the rich and high-income upper middle class. These classes also use private vehicles for transportation, causing more per capita pollution.
However, the pollution from private transport, the supply of raw materials and the entire industrial and transportation process is borne by the poor who, due to limited financial resources, are unable to protect themselves from the harmful effects of this pollution.
The focus of this study is on the pollution of particles with a length of 2.5 micrometers (or less) that remain suspended in the air for a long time, as the role of these particles in health disorders and deaths has also been highlighted. ۔
While the study found that India’s affluent class is most responsible for air pollution, it also found that the death rate among the Indian poor due to pollution is nine times higher than that of the rich.
The study, published in the latest issue of the research journal Nature Sustainability, is also unique in that it highlights for the first time the serious problem of social inequality in the context of environmental pollution.
It should be noted that India is one of the most polluted countries in the world.
According to recent estimates, there were at least 1.7 million deaths due to air pollution in India in 2019, accounting for 18% of the annual deaths there.
According to a report published in the popular Indian journal Down to Earth on October 15, 2019, air pollution in India kills one child every three minutes. That means there are more than 200,000 children dying every year due to air pollution.
Investigations so far have blamed India for poor air pollution on poor villagers burning wood or coal in brick kilns and traditional stoves, and farmers burning large crop residues each year.
In this sense, it is the first time that emissions have been assessed on the basis of income and consumption.
