November 12, 2025
'I just want to breathe': Rare protests over air pollution in New Delhi
Breathing Delhi's air can cut as much as 12 years off your life expectancy
What's happening?
- Hundreds of Delhi citizens took to the streets on Sunday Nov 9 to protest against the toxic levels of air pollution in the city and the lack of concrete steps by the government to address the issue.
- This included mothers and children, students, retirees and environmentalists - all united by a basic but desperate demand: the right to breathe safely in India's capital. They wore masks and carried placards with signs such as 'I miss breathing'.
- The call for Sunday's protest had initially been to gather at India Gate. On Sunday (the day of the protest) police shut down India gate to prevent the protest. They also detained almost 100 protesters at police stations until late into the night, with elderly people, mothers and children among them and filed a police case against the organizers.
Why should you care?
- Delhi has been notorious for its poor air quality, turning almost toxic every winter months. It has consistently ranked among the most polluted cities in the world for years. The same continued to play out this year, with the AQI being in the severe or hazardous category on most days.
- On many days, the AQI reached dangerous levels such as 600 or 700 in certain regions at certain times. Such poor air quality has been proven to have dangerous health impacts including respiratory diseases, cardiovascular issues, and neurological impacts. In fact one study said that breathing Delhi air can cut as much as 12 years of an individual's life expectancy.
Why now?
- The failure by multiple state governments to take concrete action against air pollution means it has often been met with apathy. The deathly air pollution in the winter months has almost been normalised. But I guess, this year people thought they had finally had enough and it resulted in a rare protest where anger and frustration came to the surface.
- Recent news reports that showed air quality data being manipulated by either not publishing data at all on certain days (e.g. Diwali when air pollution tends to be at its worse due to fire crackers) or sprinkling of water on air quality sensors may have contributed further to citizen anger.