Making our stars align!

There are some instances in life when everyone hopes that all stars will align and everything will come together in a positive way. But what if they don't align? Do you just wait for the positive to happen? Do you just wither away in despair of when it will happen? or Do you push them to align? We did. We pushed. We made the stars align! This is the story of my wedding with my betrothed, Nidhi. This is the story of our wedding during the Corona-times; something that will be fondly remembered by everyone who became part of this pivotal event of my life. 

If I rewind, it wasn't too long ago when the world made sense. Like everyone, I had THE PLAN! And everything was trotting along well. I had got a job in India, my Ph.D. finished ahead of time, and Nidhi was successfully able to secure a position with Microsoft in India. We were ready to get married this April and start a new life in Bengaluru. 

My first business class trip from Chicago to Bengaluru.

I traveled from the US to India after wrapping up my 6 years of graduate school in the US on a preview trip scheduled by my employer, Shell. As I laid back in the business cabin relaxed in my own thoughts, the rest of the world was whispering about the creeping of a virus (one famous dude called it the Chinese Virus). The virus which had wreaked havoc in China was now rearing its ugly head in different parts of the world. 

Amidst that buzz, I landed in Bengaluru on March 3. The airport was the same yet different. The presence of health workers & thermal screeners at the airport gave me an eerie feeling. This was the time when there were only a handful of cases in India. The media was discussing the spread of the coronavirus in Europe and the pandemic still seemed distant. The hotel where I stayed had an active dining hall with the guests forming a beeline at different breakfast buffet counters. Just 4 months ago, it was so NORMAL!

My welcome party in Jaipur

Hanging out at a Bengaluru Cafe

After spending a few days in Bengaluru, I finally traveled to Jaipur to an amazing welcome by my family. Everyone was excited about the upcoming wedding in a month. In the next few days, we started buying clothes and prepping for the wedding. Alas! I wish for that normalcy, now.

It had just been a week for me in India and already the whispers had changed to real conversations of the virus spread. The COVID cases were on a rise and the images of the melting Italian health infrastructure was bearing on people's mind. I always had an ear out for the Corona-news because in the corner of my mind I knew, that this is going to affect the wedding.

At this point, I was in Jaipur, and Nidhi was working from home in Seattle. She was supposed to travel on April 3 to India for the wedding, which was set for April 17. Government directives on curbing international travel in the second week of March deeply concerned me. America was showing similar early signs of the outbreak as Europe. I feared that Nidhi won't be able to fly back for the wedding. After several long phone calls, we decided that she will prepone her travel. She flew back on March 17, and the next day, the Government announced a ban on all international flights scheduled after that week. Our grappling match with destiny had just begun.

The utterly silent street outside my house #CoronavirusLockdown

While Nidhi began her 14-day quarantine at home, Modiji announced a nationwide lockdown of 21 days, and entire India came to a standstill. Lockdown till April 14, and wedding on April 17. Everyone knew that the wedding is not happening as planned, anymore. But that 0.1% of optimism somehow kept the dominant, 99.9% at bay. Every day in April, both me and Nidhi discussed how no information is disseminated by the Government about the lifting of lockdown. And then, LOCKDOWN 2.0 was announced on April 13.

For both of us, after a long courtship, the wedding day was a much-awaited culmination of our feelings. With the unprecedented lockdown, all the planning was laid waste and a crushing feeling swept in our hearts. The silver lining was Nidhi's decision to prepone her travel, lest, she be stuck alone in Seattle with no defined way of traveling back to India. At least, I could rest assured that she is with family and only a couple hundred miles away.

While it was especially difficult for the two of us, weddings in India are much more coveted occasions for families of the bridegroom. The relatives and friends understood the utter helplessness in the situation. Still, their calls filled with curiosity about our plans kept reminding us of the fact that we didn't have one.  The uncertainties weighed heavily on both sides but no one knew what to do. Everyone stayed put, making peace with living during the COVID era and almost a month passed, just like that. The optimism for a wedding even after lockdown 2.0 was already dwindling when lockdown 3.0 was announced on May 4.

Notices outside SMS Hospital Outdoor Patient Department

By the end of the third lockdown, we heard about some families in Jaipur using the minor relaxations given by the Government to organize weddings with about 10-20 people. Was this, our unexpected answer? A few calls around Jaipur unraveled the operational logistics of the lockdown weddings. As per Government rules, we had to acquire permission from the Secretariat to organize a wedding, and permission for Nidhi & her family to travel across state borders from Delhi to Jaipur. It was no easy task during the lockdown when the entire country was in a disarray with mounting economic, health, and humanitarian concerns. But the two families made a soft decision to keep the wedding on May 24.

With a close-knit family of first cousins, all residing in Jaipur, it was a colossal nightmare to fix on this small guest list. Also, the absence of both my sisters' husbands, one in Dubai, and one in Houston was especially hard-hitting. There was already some reluctance on our side about organizing such an event during the spread of an infectious disease. On the other side, Nidhi's family had started their preparations once again. Unfortunately, managing expectations was the call of the hour. The inexactitude of Government directives and fear within our family had to be communicated to my in-laws. For a second time within 40 days, the wedding was indefinitely postponed.

Reopening of the roadside food-cart near our house after 40 days. He waited patiently for customers who never came that day.

My conversations with Nidhi every evening became gloomier. Numbed by the overflowing Coronavirus news, frustrated by the inaction, and marred by the indecisiveness, every day was like waking up in an endless void. These feelings are really not an exaggeration, and many must have felt it when something monumentally important to their lives has been pushed farther away from them. April jumped into May, and May tread on into June.

A new reality had begun to dawn on my family. We were running out of auspicious days before a permanent break came due to the Monsoon season at the end of June. The break would eventually be over in November, but there was growing uncertainty whether the virus situation would be under control even in November. Under that consideration, a bit more decisively, and with a heavy heart of keeping many kinfolks out of the guest list, we decided that June 14 will be the wedding date. The clouds of not knowing were withering away from me and Nidhi.

Apprehensions about November are warranted, it seems

A venue was finalized, the constrained program was decided, Delhi-Jaipur routes were mapped even in the remote case of another border shutdown, and we had just begun to invite the guests. Destiny had more surprises though! My sisters' husband secured a ticket to come back to India from Houston under the Vande Bharat Mission. A news everyone had been waiting for came at a time when everything else was already laid out in conflict of it. It was a critical piece of the ever-growing puzzle of the Coronavirus-wedding and another delay could not be helped. 

June 14 was a No-Go! 

Not an indefinite extension but an even more unexpected one, nonetheless. Considering my brother-in-law's quarantine period, the new date was June 28.

A third time, the elation of a planned wedding had to be put down. No longer was I sure that even June 28 was the final date. As the delay came from our end, I felt immeasurably bad about how this wedding has made a whirlwind of Nidhi's feelings. She was braving it like a champion but I was at a loss for words. Surprise turns kept coming in our journey and they blocked the light at the end of the road every time.

But June 28 was the last chance for a possible wedding this year on an auspicious date. The scientist in me took a vacation as I turned extremely superstitious, resorting to crossed fingers and seeking spiritual signs for a confirmation that June 28 was the final wedding day. The plans were more elaborate this time as more relaxations had been granted by the Government. People had got used to the new life during the last 2.5 months and everyone wanted to make up for this last postponement that came out of the blue. 

June 27: My brother-in-law came out of the quarantine. We had a small get-together for my Haldi ceremony and seeing my jolly family, finally infused some hope of a wedding. I was the youngest brother of all my cousins, so the excitement was palpable. No-matter the corona dampener, everyone was ready to make the most out of this short & sweet venture into the virus-marred event. That night, Nidhi and her family, finally came to Jaipur and I got to lay my eyes on my to-be-wife after so long. She looked prettier than ever!

Our first meeting in a long while, the night before the wedding

June 28: On that morning, I was still not sure everything would go as planned. But it did! :D The wedding program had no hiccups, and the smiles of my family were all that I will need to keep in my memories.

The newly-wed couple #CoronaWeddingSuccess

July 12: It has been more than 14 days since the wedding now. #QuarantineComplete 

Everyone who attended the wedding is safe and sound. It is by sheer will and God's grace that I & Nidhi have started our lives together and now we move past those troubled times to a new future!

A Short Description of the Caste System in India

Caste refers to the endogamous communities that constitute most of the Indian population, largely belonging to the Hindu religion. While there are thousands of castes or “jatis”, they belong to the following broad categories:

HINDU "VARNA" SYSTEM

• Brahmins or scholars
• Kshatriyas or rulers
• Vaishyas or merchants
• Shudras or laborers

HINDU "AVARNA"

• Dalits or the untouchables

NOT PART OF THE BROAD HINDU SYSTEM

• Tribals or the purported pre-Indus civilization natives

Rabindranath Tagore, the famous Nobel laureate poet, denounced the caste system as an experiment in racial unity that has caged mutability, which is the law of life [2]. In saying so, he criticized the systematic exploitation of Dalits and tribals for over two millennia.

The so-called lower castes, Dalits (constitutionally known as Scheduled Castes, SC), have been associated with “impure” occupations. Their jobs traditionally were of sanitation workers, cleaners, and tanners (working with dead animals with bare hands). The “unclean” profession was associated with an unclean being by the scholarly classes, who forced them to live an impoverished life, discriminated against them for even basic rights, and subjected them to inhuman treatment, like untouchability. Upper-caste Hindus have actively resisted improvement in Dalit lives and forced them to continue the same professions over several generations. Also, tribal (constitutionally known as Scheduled Tribes, ST), or the natives were considered aliens and subjected to similar atrocities as the Dalits.

READ ON: How India tried to tackle the social imbalance created by the caste system using reservations for depressed classes?

Caste-based reservation v/s Fighting discrimination

“Caste is not a division of labor; it is a division of laborers”, wrote the most renowned Dalit reformer of free India, acrimoniously (Source). The Ambedkar vision for the annihilation of caste was pivotal for the newly awakened free India. It constitutionally bound the democratic Government to provide a positive stimulus for uplifting backward classes of people. 

For the uninitiated reader, read this small excerpt on caste-system and it will lead you back to this article.

When India found its freedom, our founders knew that social efficiency & integration is imperative for progress, and the caste system has been everything but. Unfortunately, it had its defenders in 1947, and it still does in 2020. We have failed our discriminated, fellow countrymen!

Violence against Dalits has continued unabated

BUT! present failure does not forebode future failure. An educated revision of our approach to cleansing India of this curse has been long overdue. A review of the “reservation system” in India, the foremost & controversial affirmative action against the caste system, is critical. It provides for a dedicated quota of positions in higher education and government jobs for the persecuted communities. The policy was designed to quantum leap the social change. This article is my attempt to put forth the issues with the current reservation system that was adopted by our founders and has now mutated into an unassailable beast. It is a critique of our over-reliance on reservations to fight discrimination; a method that has not been authoritatively proven to overcome discriminatory differences, and is not part of the affirmative action policies of many other countries, where racial discrimination had been prevalent in the past (Source).

By heredity, I follow Jainism and I think I belong to the so-called upper-caste. Unfortunately, if there is any bias in my views I cannot control my sub-conscious. Still, I will try my best to put forth an argument for the need to eliminate the reservation system and replace it with a more grassroots approach to solve the bane of caste. For an alternative opinion on the need for caste-based reservation system, here are a few opinions I have read during my research (Article 1)(Article 2)(Article 3).

In this article though, the fundamental question I wish to put forth is:

Has the reservation system that guarantees representation in education and public-sector employment, led to a dissociation of caste-identity?

 

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Before discussing the problems with the prevalent reservation system, I need to discuss its extent.

Article 15 of the Indian constitution allows the state to make provisions for positive discrimination to uplift the “socially or educationally” backward sections, while Article 16 allows for reservations in state appointments and posts. It is noteworthy that Article 15 did not mention economic backwardness (Source), which has only recently been added when the current Central government included a 10 % reservation for the “Economically Weaker Sections (EWS)” (Source). Originally, the reservation was set at a 15% quota for the Scheduled Caste category that includes Dalits, and 7.5% quota for the Scheduled Tribe category that largely included the Adivasi communities. These quotas were to be implemented in admissions to government-aided educational institutions and jobs in public-sector companies or services (Source).

Later, a new category of Other Backward Classes (OBC’s) was suggested in a report by the Mandal Commission in 1983 (Source). It listed 3,743 different castes and communities, that belonged to the ‘shudra’ varna (in the varna system of Hindus), and were found to be socially and educationally backward (Source). At the time, no action was taken on those suggestions. However, 7 years later, in a rather turbulent political atmosphere, Prime Minister V. P. Singh pushed for the implementation of 27% reservations for OBC’s in government jobs (Source). It is alleged that this was done to strengthen his voter base given that OBCs comprised nearly 50% population. 

It is remarkable to note that the Mandal report recommendations were based on a 1931 Census (Source), data that was 60 years old from when the OBC reservations were instituted. 

Since 1931, no census had included the counting of the OBC population to date (2021 census is expected to do that). The OBC reservation policy was so drastic that violent protests erupted across the country and many will remember it because of the images of self-immolation of hundreds of youngsters (Source). While initially OBC reservation was only in government services, it was extended to higher education in 2006. 

Due to the rapid politicization of the issue of reservation, many unforeseen protests have erupted in different areas of the country in recent years. Even communities, which have been known to be socially strong and dominant, have begun to ask for reservations. This includes the Gurjar protests in Rajasthan (Source), Patidar unrest in Gujarat (Source), Maratha agitation in Maharashtra (Source), and Jats across North India (Source).

The scale of present unrest could not have been anticipated in 1947 by the members of the drafting committee of the constitution but there was some inkling.

Everyone thought that affirmative action is needed and special provisions were needed to right the atrocities done under the name of caste system and untouchability. But a numerical quota in government institutions was not considered to be a good solution by some political stalwarts. 

Sardar Patel touted it as being against the idea of one nation as it institutionalizes caste identity (Source), while Nehru suggested that it would result in an incompetent second-rate bureaucracy (Source). Mahatma Gandhi was also against the idea of reservations as it would instill a communal spirit (Source). Often such comments are considered biased as they come from leaders with an upper-caste background. To me, this was simply their foresight gained by observing the behavior of their fellow countrymen and constituent assembly members.

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The primary focus of the reservation system was to create an adequate representation in the education and employment of the lower-caste Hindus who had been desisted from intellectual activities for several centuries. Such representation would result in positive feedback on policy development and implementation that would uplift these less-privileged sections of the society. Maybe the idea was that such a cycle would eventually blur the occupational and economic lines between different castes. It is important to remind us that economic backwardness was not the original target of the affirmative action policy as envisaged in the constitution. Rather it was just a means to achieve a greater goal.

In the following four-point critique of the reservation system, I will not touch upon its politicization, which is a topic in and of itself.

Politics of reservations, as it exists today, is reason enough to shelve the idea and use an alternative approach (Relevant Reading).

Barring that, here are four ideological points that in my opinion, beckon the need for an overhaul of India's affirmative action policies.

POINT ONE

The concept of adequate representation institutionalizes the idea that all citizens are not the same. It reinforces the idea that a caste can only be supported or uplifted by people from the same caste instead of people with the best skills. 

There is no end to this rationale. Even among the scheduled caste category, there are hundreds of communities. Maybe each community should have a separate representative as proposed by the OBC leader Alpesh Thakor (Source). It may even be extended to the regional and linguistic divide as well. These extremes need to be discussed in the current socio-political climate of the country and it doesn't take an expert to see that this dismantles the concept of a meritocratic unified system. Every politician, bureaucrat, and public sector employee would then carry that identity in his/her work leading to the preferential treatment of their “caste, community or region” and not the people as a whole. 

The conversation about quotas is always supported by proportional representation without discussing the original intent of that representation, which is dismantling the caste system.

More importantly, the idea of representation suggests that changes in the life/livelihood of the victim (in this case, Dalits and Tribals) will lead to a change in the behavior of the perpetrator (in this case, the Upper-caste Hindus). Instead, there should be massive educational campaigns about equality, the lawlessness of untouchability, and punishment for discrimination, especially geared towards the upper caste Hindus who are consistently miseducated about the caste system (Source).

We have abandoned the job of changing caste perception to the upward mobility of a few Dalits, who hopefully will gain a handful of positions of responsibilities.

Representation is already being achieved, at least in the public sector (Source) but caste-based identity persists in a likely more ingrained manner (Source). An example to the contrary is present in the US. There, even without a numerical quota in the legislature, higher education, or public sector employment, blacks have overcome racial barriers to have nearly proportional representation in government (Source).

POINT TWO

The biggest issue with a numerical quota is the decimation of competition and meritocracy. As Mahatma Gandhi articulately put it, if he needs five engineers, he needs five with the best grades and not one from each caste (Source).

Root Problems Unsolved: Due to the presence of reservations, political bodies find it easy to neglect the additional coaching needed by depressed class students (Source), boarding issues, basic healthcare, and financial support at the primary & secondary school level. These are all impediments before the competitive exams. This grassroots problem manifests in the results of Class X (shown below), where mean achievement scores are highly dependent on the caste of a student.

Data is obtained from a 2018 MHRD Report, "Educational Statistics at a Glance" (Source).

Arun Shourie, the famous journalist turned politician, vehemently stated in an interview (as well as in his book) that all possible assistance must be made available to the students belonging to the depressed classes BEFORE the competition. But when the competition starts, let merit win! (Source) Another research article on the prevalence of caste discrimination at IIT-BHU suggests that reservation policy has not succeeded in leveling the playing field in higher education and intervention is needed in school years. (Source)

The disparity in the marks of Class X students shows our indifference in the shroud of the reservation system. Depressed classes need additional coaching, study stipends, and basic healthcare to prepare for the competition (Source).

Factionalized Competition: During the drafting of the constitution, H. J. Khandekar commented that Dalit recruitment in the now outmoded, Indian Civil Service (ICS), was appallingly low because of their low grades. This was used as a rationale to support a separate quota of government positions for Dalits (Source). However, the argument fails to address the problem, and this quota actively dis-incentivizes efforts for improvement in grades to the same level as the non-reserved seats. 

Plots show the qualifying marks needed for admission in various examinations and institutes. Data sources: IAS (Source), JEE (Source), IIM-A (Source), NLU-B (Source)

Large differences exist in various leading competitive examinations in the country as shown in the data above (Could not find OBC data for admissions to NLU Bangalore). This data shows that even after 70 years of that argument by Mr. Khandekar, the admittance of reserved category students continues to be done at disproportionately lower grades. In a free market, these grades would have led to a much smaller fraction of reserved category students entering into higher education. 

Management-wise distribution of the percentage of students enrolled in Universities for each reserved category. (Data Source: AISHE)

More compelling evidence of the problem with factionalizing the competition into different categories is evident from this figure. It represents the percentage of students enrolled in different types of universities that belong to different reserved categories.

The representation in public sector universities and Institutes of Eminence is nearly proportional to the share of reserved category population as mandated by the reservation policy. But as soon as we move to the free market forces represented by the private sector universities, we see a much smaller fraction of enrollments secured by the SC and ST students. Supporters of the reservation system would argue that we need reservations in private universities to fight this active discrimination (Source). I would not deny that caste-based discrimination could be a reason but it would be arrogant to say that it is the only reason. The competence level of students (evidenced by competitive exams), as well as financial constraints, maybe playing a bigger role in the low enrollment in private institutions of higher education.

POINT THREE

It perpetuates the caste system. There is no discussion on the expiration for the reservation system. The perversion of such reservations can be observed in Malaysia where even shop areas are reserved for native Malays, who are identified as the discriminated class (Source). The identification of an individual by his/her caste is essential to determine these quotas. Hence, the basic premise of creating a casteless society fails! This was also acknowledged in a high court judgment on the collection of caste data by schools in Haryana (Source). As mentioned earlier, the agitations for more reservations of different communities is embedding the caste identity even more. 

This perpetuation lies in proof and inter-caste marriage is the holy-grail of breaking caste barriers. A study from 2011 finds that only 5.82% of marriages are inter-caste marriages and the trend has been more or less horizontal for the past 4 decades (Source).

POINT FOUR

The foundation of reservation-based approach against the caste system was that representatives of a community in education and employment would holistically benefit that community. 

But, a recent ruling of the supreme court has identified that there is ONLY an upper-section of SC, ST, and OBC classes who are actively extracting the benefits of the reservation system (Source)(Source)(Source). This section uses these quotas several times for each individual, and for several individuals in each family. The concept of the “creamy layer” (a socially advanced group within the reserved category who are legally not allowed to benefit from the reservation policy) only exists for the OBC’s in practice, which is oftentimes misused by making fake certificates for admissions in educational institutions (Source). 

Another fact that puts into doubt the holistic upliftment of caste is that data shows that even now, many in the depressed communities are unaware of the reserved quota in education and government jobs (Source).

The answer is not in a representative of “my” community but a good representative from “any” community.

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The concept of CASTE, as it exists today, must be destroyed. 

Studies have shown that untouchability persists in the 21st century but the complicated and fragmented polity in India makes it difficult to review our approach to tackle the issue.

A larger fraction of Dalit and tribal classes is poor compared to the general category and OBCs. While there is no data source, it stands to reason that Dalit or Tribal students are more likely to study in low-cost Government schools. Several studies have shown that government schools fare worse than private schools (Source) and lack the international standards for competing in a globalized world. 

After training a section of students in less competent ways, this failure at the school level is brushed off by providing reservations for higher education. 

This is a double-whammy where we neglect the fundamental issue and then less-than-meritocratic admissions are bestowed with the responsibility to solve that same fundamental issue.

My view is against this method of problem-solving. It brews slow growth, inter-caste animosity, political unrest, and perpetuates discriminatory attitudes. It is a greater disservice to the depressed classes that we stick to a solution methodology that has benefitted in terms of representation but fails on many other accounts as the article hopefully addressed.

Several alternate forms of reservations, including the creation of a vulnerability index or social disadvantage index, have been suggested by more prolific writers/researchers in the field (Source)(Source)(Source). Furthermore, ideas for achieving social justice through land reforms, and added means of capacity building for the depressed classes (Source), have been suggested to supplant the weakly-performing liability of reservations. Hence, there is no reason for me to reinvent the wheel. 

As a bystander to the dance of casteism, I just have one suggestion for policy-makers. We should stop including the family name of an individual during the application and interview process for government jobs and entry in educational institutions. Simply identify them with a number or token for that process. This too, should not last forever!

In the end, I would just like to point out that every time an inequity shows up in the data for different communities, a section of politicos cries for a greater need for reservations (Source)(Source). If such a divisive policy hasn’t paid dividends yet, isn’t it time to rethink our approach?

More Lockdowns are not Far: Air Pollution in India

Over the past 10 years, India has gained worldwide notoriety for having the maximum number of cities with the world's worst air quality. The entire population that reveres every aspect of nature has contributed to its deterioration through negligence, ignorance, and malfeasance. Our media outlets only care about this news when some International Organization comes up with a new ranking, marking us as the most polluted. In response, our general conscience is tickled for a fleeting moment. With this article, I aim to tackle the ignorance of our general populace on this topic.

At first, let's draw our attention to the magnitude of this problem. According to a 2019 study [1], the death of 12 lakh Indians per year has been attributed to air pollution. This dwarfs even some of the grim predictions given for Coronavirus in India for which we have had a 40-day countrywide lockdown. The pollution-related deaths include deaths due to pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lung cancer [2], all conditions that are incepted or exacerbated because of polluted air. Someone else's death for Indians is merely a number in our daily newspaper. Hence, it may be more useful to talk about the effect on the health of each individual. The hazardous air quality of India is associated with a decrease in 1.5 years of your life [1]. Now, let's consider the economic cost of ignoring this problem, which is crippling our country's growth. India is set to lose almost ~5.4% of GDP or about 10 lakh crore due to the adverse effect of pollution on our health [3]. This is greater than 4 times our allocation to the entire health sector (stands at ~1.3% of GDP). The cost comes from the loss of productive life of individuals, the cost of an overburdening health system, and the loss of about 50 crore working days among India's working population due to pollution-related illnesses [4].

The picture is grim, especially for India. In my opinion, the first step is a greater public awareness and this article serves to alleviate that problem. Indians must know more about the sources of air pollution, government policies for clean air, and about individual actions that must be taken to rein in this menace.

KNOWING THE ENEMY

We have heard about pollution from industries, automobiles, and construction. Often, the context is government regulations on curbing it. Yet we little about how exactly are they polluting the air. There are many pollutants, but for India's common man, we will focus on Ozone, and Particulate Matter (PM).

Ground-level ozone is a pollutant that is not directly emitted by pollution sources. It is released in the atmosphere when pollutants (SO₂, NOx, and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)) from industries and automobiles react in the presence of sunlight. Along with Ozone, these reactions release fine particles that remain suspended in the air, the combined effect of which, in low or no-wind condition results in the infamous smog [5] of Northern India. Funnily enough, Ozone, a toxic gas, has the same building blocks in a different orientation as the essential, Oxygen; talk about the fine balance of nature.

Why is Ozone toxic? Ozone is a powerful oxidizer [6], which means it can cause the same type of process that produces rust in iron, but much more nefariously. It is extremely harmful to humans causing irritability on the skin and in the air passage. Moreover, it is also known to adversely affect crops, and building structures.

Particulate Matter or PM is often the headlining pollutant of India. By definition, it refers to a range of tiny particles that may or may not be visible to the naked eye in the air. It could be anything from dust particles to unburnt carbon particles and can remain suspended in the air for long durations.

Why should PM concern us? These foreign particles enter our bloodstream through the respiratory tract resulting in a range of health problems.

Roadside construction material [7], indiscriminate outdoor fires [8], and industrial or vehicular emissions are all responsible for the increase in the levels of PM in your surroundings. In India, its effect is more vicious due to:

1. extensive use of low-quality cooking fuels, like, firewood, coal, and cow dung cakes [2,9]
2. ill-conceived adulteration of cleaner fuels for transportation [10]
3. poor oversight of industrial emissions [11]
4. systematic failure of government enforcement and individual responsibility for pollution control of independent & public vehicles [12]

Especially the first point is specific to South Asian and African economies. The adverse effect of PM filled smoke emitted from non-LPG cooking sources is compounded by the lack of proper ventilation in rural households [13] and the claustrophobic design of the urban slums [14]. The second point above reinforces our image as an inherently corrupt system, where rules are often circumvented and the latter two points may be attributed to poor governance. Often the discussion around PM is done using some numbers like, PM2.5 and PM10, which simply refers to particles with diameters, D < 2.5µm, and diameters between 2.5µm < D < 10µm, respectively. The count of both metrics is much higher for Indian cities than most European or American cities.

VISUALIZING POLLUTION

Now that we know a bit about what concerns us, let's look at the level of these dangers in which we live. The following videos show how PM2.5, PM10, and Ozone level variations were captured by the air quality monitoring stations set up by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), India. The color-coding used in the map refers to the table below and is consistent with the standards set up by CPCB (Source). Green is GOOD, red is BAD. The grayed out area represents the regions where no data was available. 

Github repository for the related source code is shared here. Disclaimer: As the project evolved, some file names may have been changed. Their references in other files will have to be updated in case you run into an error.

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Daily PM2.5 Variation in 2019

Daily PM10 Variation in 2019

Daily Ozone Variation in 2019

Pollution Levels	PM 2.5 (in µg/m3)	PM 10 (in µg/m3)	Ozone (in µg/m3)
Level 1 (Dark Green)	0 - 30	0 - 50	0 - 50
Level 2 (Light Green)	31 - 60	51 - 100	51 - 100
Level 3 (Yellow)	61 - 90	101 - 250	101 - 168
Level 4 (Orange)	91 - 120	251 - 350	169 - 208
Level 5 (Red)	121 - 250	351 - 430	209 - 748
Level 6 (Maroon)	250+	430+	748+

A Short Critique

This article is not geared towards describing the extent of pollution. However,  I would be remiss if I do not mention the salient features of these images. The above videos clearly show the extremely hazardous levels of PM2.5 and PM10 that exist over a lot of north and central India especially during the Winter. The respite during summer is not due to human intervention but due to the natural summer monsoons that India receives. We haven't done our bit to curb pollution. For now, Ozone levels are under control but due to its hazardous nature, careful monitoring of its levels is necessary.

The most obvious takeaway from these videos is the large swaths of south, northeast, and parts of northern & central India that are grayed out. No air quality monitoring stations exist in these locations, which highlights the short-sightedness of our Clean Air Program, and only focusing on UP, Rajasthan. Only 128 cities are monitored in the country (of nearly 4000 cities). Districts that lie within 200km of these cities have been prescribed the same pollution levels and shown in the videos above. Even then a significant area is grayed out. It shows the lack of data acquisition even in the face of a crisis. This is clearly not a rigorous exercise, hence, I have taken the liberty of a 200km radius. It is simply an individual's effort to understand our country's air!

FIGHTING THE ENEMY

The Government has prioritized air pollution as an agenda with the National Clean Air Program, Prime Minister Ujwala Yojana (PMUY), and expediting the rollout of BS-VI vehicular emission norms. Even an entire book may not be sufficient to discuss and debate about Government undertakings, flaws in their implementation, and its lackluster final product. But, this does not vindicate us of responsibility.

An individual must:

1. Restrain from burning garbage or dried leaves. Instead, collect it and throw it along with household garbage in designated locations identified during Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan. Your locality is your house as well.

2. Reduce the use of private vehicles, and instead walk, carpool, taxi, or use public transport.

3. Engage with your neighbors during any construction. Complain if anyone uses roadside for construction debris/material and don't take responsibility for it. [15]

4. Actively engage with initiatives like PMUY by communicating the benefits to poorer households and assisting them in taking its full benefit [16]

5. Spread awareness. Make air pollution an important agenda on which you cast your vote in elections. Remember, that this is an improvement in daily life we will be fighting for.

Let's not wait for a savior!

SIDE NOTE ABOUT THE VISUALIZATIONS

Creating the above visualizations was a separate personal project that I had to undertake to give substance to this post. Another contributor to this project was my fiancee, Nidhi Tyagi, who is currently a resident of Delhi, notoriously known for its toxic air quality.

This visualization required developing several Python scripts (that was a new language for me), extracting data from the CPCB website for individual stations (Source), entity-matching for city names used to identify districts and the stations, and extensive exploitation of Microsoft Excel's capability to manipulate a large data-set. Details about this project are now shared in a Github repository for anyone interested (Source Code). Disclaimer: As the project evolved, some file names may have been changed. Their references in other files will have to be updated in case you run into an error.

Not many people would invest the time, and not many events like the lockdown will happen often to give the time-bandwidth to even concerned individuals. My sincere request to the CPCB and other Government bodies is that this data must be more organized and easily accessible.