Tannuka Juneja
At least 200 million people in India live in extreme poverty and are facing dangerous levels of air pollution. This is according to a recent study by World Bank experts. The study also estimates that 47% of the country’s 2.8 billion people are exposed to hazardous quality air. An estimated 1.33 billion people, or 96% of India’s estimated 1.39 billion people, breathe dangerous air, according to a study by World Bank experts.
The study found that most parts of the world do not meet WHO safety standards. 96.4% of the global population is exposed to polluted air. Most people in middle-income countries, such as India and China, are at greater risk. The highest risk is to the poor.
A high proportion of manual and outdoor labour in the low-income population means that they are exposed to increasing exposure to pollutants. The report says that barriers to access, availability and quality of healthcare systems are exacerbating air pollution-related deaths among the poor.
Globally, air pollution alone contributes to 66.7 lakh deaths, according to the report, which updates a previous analysis from 2015. Overall, pollution was responsible for an estimated 90 lakh deaths in 2019 (equivalent to one in six deaths worldwide), a number that has remained unchanged since the 2015 analysis. Ambient air pollution was responsible for 45 lakh deaths, and hazardous chemical pollutants for 17 lakh, with 9 lakh deaths attributable to lead pollution.
