Business Standard wishes all its readers a happy and healthy Diwali, or Deepavali. Hopefully, this year fewer of our readers have had bronchial and asthma attacks, chest congestion, cough and throat irritation and red and watery eyes! A colourful festival of lights has become an evening of fumes with a morning after of smog in many parts of the country. Deepavali has always been associated with not just lights but also sound, since bursting crackers is part of the fun and the tradition of celebrating the victory of good over evil and the warding off of evil spirits. The bursting of crackers has always left a trail of smoke. However, over the years this trail has become a cloud of injurious smoke. In the nation’s capital, with the usual winter smog, people report high incidence of asthmatic and bronchial attacks and throat and eye problems.
Fireworks like ‘phuljari’ and ‘anaar’ contain highly toxic chemicals and metals, including copper, cadmium, lead, manganese, zinc, sodium and potassium. Some of these, when suspended in the air we breathe, cause asthmatic attacks, contribute to severe headaches and respiratory diseases and chronic cough.
Apart from air pollution, Diwali also comes with noise pollution, a very Indian problem common to many festivals cutting across religions and regions. There is then the waste of electricity, with gaudy electric lighting replacing traditional oil lamps that also look so much prettier.
On the positive side, the growing public awareness, especially among young people, regarding the ill-effects of air and noise pollution, apart from the obscenity of wasteful and conspicuous consumption, has contributed to a new civil society movement in favour of a “safer, cleaner and healthier” Diwali. Such awareness has to be consciously and systematically spread through the educational system as well as by the media and by voluntary organisations.
The need for such awareness is all the more with rapid and spreading urbanisation and the emergence of newer generations of wealthy families willing to spend money on costlier, brighter and noisier fireworks. An increasingly younger population is choosing nosier crackers. According to industry sources, average spending on crackers per family can vary from anywhere near Rs 500 to Rs 25,000.
Unless public awareness campaigns are undertaken in a systematic and sustained manner, including by public interest organisations and government health agencies, the necessary awareness would not be there in a society where wealth is spreading more quickly than education and social awareness.
Apart from the specific health hazards associated with Diwali celebrations in particular, there are other more ubiquitous problems associated with noise pollution that haunt urban life through the year. Very loud loudspeakers in places of worship broadcasting speeches made by religious leaders, and similar loud broadcasts of religious singing and chanting at regular religious gatherings, in residential neighbourhoods and such like, contribute to noise pollution and disturb aged people, young babies, children who may be studying and ailing persons recovering from illness.
India’s cities and towns need much greater public awareness regarding the dangers of air and noise pollution caused by festivals and religious events. The need for this would be even greater in years to come as urbanisation spreads and newer generations of Indians come into new prosperity and would like to show it off.
