Achieving National Clean Air targets under NCAP could drastically cut India’s increasing disease burden, especially women and children who are most at risk, said a group of scientists and experts as they released data on the direct health impacts of breathing toxic air.
The findings come just ahead of the winter season, when most Indian cities, including Delhi, witness a massive surge in PM10 and PM2.5 levels—the toxic air pollutants enveloping the entire city in a smog.
The team led by Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, and New Delhi-based Climate Trends also launched the Health Benefit Assessment Dashboard to highlight some of these impacts. It shows that achieving the 2024 National Clean Air Programme
(NCAP) target of reducing 30 per cent PM2.5 levels can help decrease the nationwide disease prevalence to 3.09 per cent from the national average of 4.87 per cent.
Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chairperson, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, who also attended the discussion, reiterated the need for setting up an environmental health commission or a high-level task force chaired by the environment minister and health minister to focus on these concerns. “We need to look at air pollution as a national problem, not just as a problem of Delhi and its surrounding areas. We really need a national-level body that makes policy and uses data from all parts of India,” she added.
Based on the 5th National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) data set across 641 Indian districts, the dashboard shows associations between PM2.5 air pollution levels and diseases such as hypertension, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), anaemia, and diabetes among women of reproductive age between 15 and 49; as well as anaemia, low birth weight, and lower respiratory infections among children under the age of five.
“When it comes to air pollution, people do not see the impacts immediately. There’s no “death certificate” for air pollution. Losses are happening—whether in Delhi NCR hospitals, workplaces, or through shortened lifespans—but the crisis is silent, invisible,” said Dr Virinder Sharma, Technical Member, Commission for Air Quality Management in Delhi NCR (CAQM).
The Health Dashboard was designed using Census 2011 district boundaries, taking district-level prevalence rates for each morbidity indicator and PM2.5 values extracted from IIT Delhi’s SAANS satellite data. The clean air scenario was modelled assuming 30 per cent reduction in PM 2.5 concentrations based on NCAP’s 2024 target. The findings show a visible decline in the prevalence of lower respiratory infections, low birth weight, and anaemia among children in heavily polluted areas, particularly in heavily polluted areas in the Indo-Gangetic Plains if clean air targets are achieved.
The projected reductions in cases of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) are even more striking, generally ranging from 3 per cent to 12 per cent, with Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Odisha and Punjab recording the strongest approvement.
“The central concern for air quality mitigation should be public health. That is why all the studies on epidemiological evidence and research conducted in India are so important for establishing clear links between air quality and public health,” said Aarti Khosla, Director, Climate Trends.
