Why some Delhi residents leave the city during Diwali

Sangeeta Chauhan knew something was wrong with her son’s health early on. In his first winter, she watched the newborn Shiv Chauhan fall sick with high fevers, wheezing coughs and skin rashes.

In 2010, when he was just two, she took him to a paediatrician who said that Shiv had a lowered immune system and a borderline-asthma condition. The baby needed to get out of Delhi, the doctor said. Sangeeta and her husband could not permanently move because of their work running furniture stores in the city.

But from then on, the family left every year during the period when Shiv’s condition was the worst: Diwali.

All through the year, Delhi’s 33 million residents breathe toxic air with pollutants crossing limits considered safe for humans. But the pollution reaches hazardous levels in the winter as smoke from farm fires in neighbouring states gets added to existing vehicular and industrial emissions, and changes in the weather and wind speed trap the toxic air over the city.

The pollution levels start climbing in October, which is also when the air in Delhi turns festive for Diwali. During Diwali week, smoke from firecrackers, which have traditionally been a part of the festivities, further compounds the smog. The impact is felt most acutely by the city’s most vulnerable residents – like Shiv Chauhan.

In 2017, when he was nine, Shiv’s family could not leave Delhi during Diwali.

That year, the festival fell on October 19. At the start of the month, according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board, the air quality in Delhi was in the “moderate” category, which is considered unsafe for those with preexisting health conditions. Very quickly, it deteriorated to “poor” and then “very poor”, a level that causes severe adverse effects for the general public.

In the days leading up to Diwali, as their neighbours and family members began bursting firecrackers, the Chauhans locked themselves in.

“All the doors were shut. We didn’t go out and meet the family, nothing, nobody came,” Sangeeta Chauhan said. “Still, it was so bad that he got an infection and he became very sick.”

Firecracker smoke includes harmful chemicals such as lead, nickel and arsenic, which when ingested can result in dermatitis, bronchoconstriction and even cancer. The smoke drives up pollution levels – a trend clearly visible in the air quality data for Delhi for the past five years.

The day after Diwali, pollution levels in the city rose sharply – and Shiv’s condition plummeted. “You can’t even imagine – he was throwing up and he had a lot of cough,” Chauhan said. “It was shocking. His phlegm was absolutely black.”

Since then, the Chauhans make sure that they leave Delhi every year before Diwali, usually travelling up to the mountains.

But it is also a period where Sangeeta Chauhan leaps into action, advocating for clean air through a national advocacy group, Warrior Moms. The group launches awareness campaigns and petitions policymakers. One of their biggest priorities is making sure the firecracker ban in Delhi is taken seriously.

For the past few years, the Supreme Court has enforced various annual regulations on the buying and selling of firecrackers in Delhi. While the regulations are not uniformly followed, some neighbourhoods have seen a quieter and less polluted Diwali. This year, a blanket ban on firecrackers went into effect in mid-October, 18 days before Diwali.

A medical challenge

Delhi’s air pollution shortens lives if its residents by almost 10 years, according to a report by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. The city’s year round levels of PM 2.5 – particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns – are over 18 times the recommended World Health Organization standards.

Air quality further plummets during Diwali. A study by Airvoice, an air quality control startup, concluded that during the main festival week, PM2.5 levels in India exceed national air quality standards by up to 875%, with Delhi being among the worst cities.

This has direct health effects for the city’s 33.8 million residents. Indians with asthma have three times higher mortality and twice the amount of disability-adjusted life years compared to the global asthmatic population, a study by the European Respiratory Society estimates.

Children are particularly vulnerable to developmental delays from air pollution. Exposure to hazardous air pollution as a child can affect growth and development into adulthood. It can lead to preterm births, developmental delays, anaemia, lung abnormalities and severe respiratory infections.

“The lungs are growing, the heart is growing,” Verma said. “Kilometres and kilometres of neural pathways are being laid down. The kind of nutrients that a child gets lead to the development of a natural system, but when you get these pollutants it hampers development and damages the lungs.”

A 2021 study published in the journal Lung India concluded that as high as 29.3% of children in Delhi suffer from airflow obstruction or asthma, but just 12% have been diagnosed and only 3.3% use inhalers.

A 2023 study in Delhi found that emergency room visits for those with acute respiratory illnesses significantly increase from October through December.

Verma’s paediatric clinic experiences a marked increase in pollution-related cases after Diwali.

“When the pollution comes, there is a sharp spike of almost 20%-30% of respiratory cases,” Verma said. “So this is a clear indication that the pollution is working against children and increasing the severity of respiratory symptoms.”

For Bobby Bhalotra, a pulmonologist and chest specialist at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, that spike is even higher.

“My practice multiplies many times during the pollution season,” Bhalotra said. “It is at the cost of the doctor’s time, nurse’s time, hospital resources – everybody’s getting strained. We are all working overtime.”

Pollution can also decrease the benefits of medications, Bhalotra said, as they are counteracted by the carcinogenic smoke.

Economic strain

Many vulnerable residents in Delhi can neither afford to leave the city during Diwali and the winter, nor can they afford medical treatment for their worsening ailments.

Gopal, who asked to be identified only by his first name, is a 50-year-old contract cleaner in Delhi who has worked various labour jobs since he was 13.

Five years ago, Gopal developed a lung infection that left him with coughing, chest pain and mucus formation, often leaving him unable to breathe or walk. His infection grew in severity after Diwali as a combination of the pollution, dust and cold.

His aunt begged him to see a lung specialist, but his daughter was engaged and he was saving money for her wedding. Unable to afford private healthcare, he went to a public hospital where he said the doctors did not pay him much attention.

“They don’t do checkups properly and treat them as a formality,” Gopal said. “They tell us to go to the OPD [outpatient department], do this, do that, stand in the line, and then give us basic cough syrups.”

This year, on October 15, just weeks before Diwali, India’s National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority raised the prices of vital asthma medications by 50%. For many asthma patients like Gopal, this puts an unbearable strain on their finances.

As it is, Gopal is unable to work when the air turns thick with pollution. During Diwali, he stays at home, finding it difficult to keep up with regular cleaning tasks. “The amount of work I’m able to do decreases,” said Gopal. “I have chest pain and I can’t walk.”

Diyas, not firecrackers

Recognising the harm caused by air pollution, many Delhi residents are voluntarily moving away from firecrackers.

Arpreet Singh, 21, was diagnosed with asthma at a young age. Growing up, he celebrated with his nebuliser, running out to play and then coming back to retake the medication within half an hour. He enjoyed bursting firecrackers as a child, but chose not to do so five years ago following a growing passion for environmentalism.

Now, he finds other ways to celebrate.

“Traditionally, this was a festival of light, and a lot of people regard it as something that welcomes hope into the house,” Singh said. “So we follow that tradition and light diyas and make way for the festival.”

The Chauhan family, too, has found a way to celebrate the festival even as they escape the city they call home.

“There is a special puja that we have, and we do that before we leave, a couple of days before Diwali,” Sangeeta Chauhan said. “You have a lot of parties, you meet a lot of relatives, people come over and there’s a distribution of gifts.”

Like they have in previous years, this year too members of Hindutva organisations, including the Delhi chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party, have claimed that the ban on firecrackers is an attempt to shift the blame for pollution on to Hindus. Chauhan believes this mindset only widens rifts in India rather than working to solve a problem that has nothing to do with religion.

“The kind of air we are breathing is absolutely inhuman,” she said. “When Lord Ram came, what we have heard is that diyas were lit. But now there are hardly any diyas lit, it is only firecrackers.”

Singh said the common perception that firecrackers are a crucial part of the festival, especially for children, is flawed. “I feel this is just a modern take on the festival, that people like to enjoy it and treat it [Diwali] as an excuse,” he said. “This is not the only thing that can provide children with joy.”

In the run-up to Diwali, before she left Delhi, Sangeeta Chauhan helped launch advocacy campaigns at schools to sensitise children to the harmful effects of firecrackers. She also contacted police stations which are responsible for implementing the firecracker ban.

“People just feel that ‘this is not our problem’ so they think being careless is okay. Because what are two or three crackers going to do?” she said. “But everything makes an impact, and the more of us there are, the more awareness we spread.”