[But this year is the first time Indian
schools have taken such precautions. As they waited to pick up children after
school on Friday, parents described an array of their children’s symptoms,
including burning eyes, incessant coughing and congestion that does not clear.]
By Suhasini Raj And Ellen Barry
 |
|
Boys
played soccer in a park on a smoggy morning in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Credit
Adnan Abidi/Reuters
|
NEW DELHI — For the first time ever, more
than 1,800 public primary schools in India’s capital will close on Saturday to
protect children from exposure to dangerous levels of air pollution, the
authorities said on Friday.
The decision affects more than a million
children.
A thick, acrid smog has settled over the
capital over the past week, a combination of smoke from burning crops in
surrounding agricultural states, fireworks on the Hindu festival of Diwali,
dust and vehicle emissions.
Levels of the most dangerous particles,
called PM 2.5, reached 600 micrograms per cubic meter in different parts of the
city this week, according to the Delhi Pollution Control Committee.
Sustained exposure to that concentration of
PM 2.5 is equivalent to smoking 40 cigarettes a day, said Sarath Guttikunda,
the director of Urban Emissions, an independent research group.
The particles are small enough to deeply
penetrate the lungs and enter the bloodstream, increasing the risk of stroke
and heart failure, and can cause severe respiratory problems including asthma
and pneumonia.
Conditions in the metropolis, home to about
20 million people, were particularly bad this week because there was little
wind and the cloud of pollutants was “just going round and round,” Mr.
Guttikunda said.
Teachers and parents said the effects on
children were visible.
Meenakshi Sahni, the principal of the Modern
School, closed her private school because of air pollution for the first time
on Friday and advised parents via text message to keep their children indoors.
There was “widespread coughing” among students and faculty members this week,
she said.
“You could actually feel that there was
something weighing down on them physically,” Ms. Sahni said. “Even at the
gathering in the auditorium, you could feel as if somebody is strangling you.”
Foreigners and Indian elites have expressed
growing alarm about winter air pollution in recent years, and some embassies
have begun discouraging families with children from moving here.
But this year is the first time Indian
schools have taken such precautions. As they waited to pick up children after
school on Friday, parents described an array of their children’s symptoms,
including burning eyes, incessant coughing and congestion that does not clear.
Seema Sansanwal, 38, said when she takes her
3½-year-old son to the doctor, the doctor “tells us, ‘Go out for an excursion
and leave the city for some days, and he will be fine,’ instead of diagnosing.”
Poonam Tokas, 35, said she could not believe
her eyes at the smog on Monday, the day after Diwali, and has forbidden her
children from playing outside until it clears. “We are going to buy masks this
evening,” she said. “But I do not think anyone can save us from the wrath of
nature.”
Indu, a municipal councilor from South Delhi
and a member of the municipal corporation’s education committee, said it was
the first time the city had taken such measures. “We took stock of how bad the
smog and pollution level had reached,” said Ms. Indu, who uses only one name.
“Even doctors are advising against going for walks. Television channels are
presenting reports showing that pollution is as bad as smoking two dozen
cigarettes.”
She said that “we are hoping weather
conditions will improve on Monday,” allowing schools to reopen. “But at least
children would have stayed away from the polluted outdoors over the weekend.”
Keeping children at home reduces their level
of activity and lessens their exposure to air pollution, especially in areas
where vehicle emissions are at their highest, Mr. Guttikunda said.
But he added that the air quality inside a
house often was not much better than outside, unless doors and windows were
closed and sealed.
“If you open them for even half a minute,
it’s gone,” he said.
Follow Suhasini Raj @suhasiniraj and Ellen
Barry @EllenBarryNYT on Twitter.