NOVEMBER 05, 2019

By TIOL Edit Team

SELF-inflicted wounds are very painful. They are avoidable too. Unfortunately, this lesson has not been applied to avoid impact of air pollution on economic growth and employment.

One curb or another on economic activity in some part of the country  has become regular feature for several years. These curbs are akin to wounds inflicted on growth of gross domestic product (GDP) and employment. These are knee-jerk reactions to air pollution (AP) that Government has failed to rein in.

Such curbs are regular feature in National Capital Region (NCR) during October-March period of any given year. The curbs are now being imposed without an iota of concern for daily wage-earners and cascading effect on economic activities

Construction work (CW) in NCR was thus banned for five days ending 5th November 2019. This was preceded by evening to morning ban on CW. The ban hurts labourers, who are daily wage earners. This makes lakhs of workers poorer. AP control has thus become an assault on poverty alleviation.

The Government & the judiciary has obviously glossed over Parliamentary Standing Committee's recommendation. In its report on NCR's Air Pollution submitted in August 2018, PSC observed: "The Committee feels that construction activities provide daily earning to the poor and weaker sections of the society. Banning construction activities results in loss of livelihood to the poor and the needy, especially labourers. A World Bank report also stated that India's labour losses due to air pollution in the year 2013 stood at about .39 Billion or about 0.84% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The said losses could be even more due to the air pollution situation prevalent during the last few years".

PSC thus recommended: "instead of banning construction activities, which deprive the poor of their daily earnings, efforts should be made for the stringent enforcement of the construction guidelines and international best practices".

Apart from banning construction activities on 1 st November 2019, Environment Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority for the National Capital Region also imposed 5-day stoppage on all coal-based industries in NCR excluding power plants. The ban extends to certain more units.

All these also employ daily wage earners. Such closures also affect the business of food carts and shacks that operate near construction sites. Some of the daily wage-earners might be using LPG as cooking fuel at their homes. Loss of daily income might be forcing many to switch back to biomass burning, thereby adding to air pollution.

On 9th October, EPCA had banned operation of diesel generator sets excluding specified exemptions. This ban normally lasts till March-end in a given year.

In addition to orders that curtail jobs and economic growth in NCR, there are other regions especially industrial clusters branded as critically polluted. In 2010, the Government had imposed moratorium on grant of environmental clearance for projects in these areas. The moratorium was lifted on case to case basis depending on progress achieved in management and reduction of pollution. Latest information on how many are still affected by moratorium is hard to come by. What is beyond doubt is that Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI) as criterion for freeze on brownfield and greenfield projects in specified areas did affect GDP, jobs, capital investments and tax revenue.

Before ordering shutdown of any plant, the Government should address a few basic issues: Is the cost of pollution gear so high as to make the industry uncompetitive? Is the market, say power consumers & automobile buyers, willing to pay higher cost of products and services due to pollution control interventions? Is the Government subjecting such industries to unfair import competition through free trade pacts?

Instead of activist-driven governance based on polluter pays principle, the Government should frame a proactive policy to prevent pollution genie slipping out of bottle across the country.

Before ordering suspension/closure of any business, the Government must mull over its inability to provide alternative employment to workers rendered jobless.

Such responsible approach calls for heavy investment in strict enforcement of best practices in construction and other sectors that contribute heavily to air pollution. The Government should also work out credible transition plans for firecracker and other industries that directly or indirectly fuel air pollution.

Foremost priority lies in agriculture where farmers burn stubble to clear field for sowing new crops. Both Central and State Governments have taken half-hearted and inadequate measures to control pollution caused by stubble burning.

Solution to issues raised by farmers are well-known and are easily implementable. The political will is lacking at the Centre. Same is the case with choking smoke released during celebration of several festivals.

Days of celebratory smoke are over due to manifold rise in population during the last 100 days. It is time to shift to laser fire works for which state and local governments should take the lead.

To sum up, the Government should adopt holistic, proactive approach to prevent pollution rather than aggressively adopting reactive governance to the delight of environmental activists who can't see beyond their nose.

We should neither tolerate unbearable pollution nor be smug to alarming levels of unemployment and underemployment. Pollution and unemployment should get equal weightage in climate action. Our agenda on this popular theme has to be different from the one trumpeted by the West.