BENGALURU – For Natasha Uppal and her husband, Delhi’s toxic air became the deciding factor in one of life’s biggest choices — whether to have a child in a city where breathing clean air is a daily struggle.
New Delhi, home to more than 30 million people, remains the world’s most polluted capital, with winter smog regularly turning its skies grey and its air toxic.
Read More: New Research Links PFAS to Weight Regain Problems
Uppal, who suffered migraines and spent countless days indoors with air purifiers running, finally decided to move to Bengaluru in 2022. Days after relocating, she found out she was pregnant. “When we thought about what kind of life we could create for our child in Delhi, the air just became such a blocker,” she told AFP.
Now living in Bengaluru — where air pollution levels are still high but far better than Delhi’s — Uppal says her son can “play outside freely,” something that felt impossible before. She calls clean air a “basic human right” and says no parent should have to choose between raising a child and protecting their health.
Read More: From Smog to Floods, Pakistani Families Face Disaster
Each year, Delhi’s air turns deadly as a mix of crop-burning, industrial emissions, and traffic fills the atmosphere with PM2.5 — microscopic particles that cause respiratory illnesses and heart disease. According to The Lancet Planetary Health, air pollution caused 3.8 million deaths in India between 2009 and 2019. Other families, like Vidushi Malhotra’s, have also left. After her two-year-old son fell sick repeatedly, she moved to Goa in 2021 and has since urged friends to do the same.
But for many, leaving isn’t easy. Roli Shrivastava, who lives in Delhi, keeps inhalers and nebulisers ready for her toddler, whose cough worsens every winter. “When your kid starts coughing at night, don’t even call me — just start nebulising,” her doctor told her.
Though she and her husband love their jobs, Shrivastava admits the thought of leaving Delhi crosses their minds often. “I don’t think at the rate it’s going, Delhi is a good place to raise kids — at least when it comes to air pollution,” she said.