In the larger narrative on climate change and urbanisation, the plight of India’s small and mid-sized cities has mostly slipped through the cracks. Not that the global and national media is oblivious to the stellar rankings, which highlight that 15 of top 20 most polluted cities are in India. However, the specific contexts in which this toxic air has been brewing are not well looked into and understood. While the metropolises hog the spotlight, these smaller cities housing millions are silently choking under a haze of neglect.
Our recent report “Declining Air Quality in Small and Mid-sized Cities” highlights the reality of these cities, which have been suffering disproportionately from declining air quality while receiving minimal attention in policy frameworks, research as well as citizen empathy. With limited media coverage, research gaps, and low public awareness, these cities have remained at the margins of mainstream conversations on air pollution.
Take Bhiwadi, for example. A small industrial hub in Rajasthan, it was labelled the world’s most polluted city in 2021, with particulate matter (PM2.5) levels over 20 times higher than the WHO guideline. The air here is a cocktail of industrial emissions, vehicular smoke and road dust. Yet, Bhiwadi remains excluded from India’s National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), an omission symptomatic of the neglect faced by small cities.
This is not an isolated case. Over 90% of Indian cities in the world’s top 100 most polluted are small and mid-sized. Even more alarming is the fact that their annual PM2.5 concentrations exceed WHO guidelines by an alarming 10 to 20 times.
A crisis of data and attention
The neglect of these cities is compounded by a lack of reliable data. The Center for Science and Environment’s (CSE) estimate is that the current monitoring grid covers only about 12% of India’s close to 4100 cities.
Many small and mid-sized cities lack continuous air quality monitoring systems, making it impossible to assess the scale of the crisis accurately. For those that do have monitoring stations, data collection is often inconsistent, with some stations recording air quality for fewer than 50 days a year.
As per the CPCB’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), the values for annual averages are to be calculated through the annual arithmetic mean of minimum 104 measurements in a year twice a week 24 hourly at uniform intervals. However, in 2019, Warangal’s air quality monitoring station recorded data for PM2.5 levels on only two days throughout the entire year.
Furthermore, for the year 2020, the data on the number of monitoring days is absent for all the cities and hence it is not clear that the annual averages reported for these cities are based on how many days of monitored PM 2.5 levels.
Our analysis revealed that continuous data on PM2.5 levels for the years 2018, 2019, and 2020 is only available for only about 30% of the total 241 small and mid-sized cities covered in the National Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP) data. Additionally, many stations fail to meet the mandated monitoring days.
Read more: Low-cost, mobile air quality monitors will empower citizens: Dr Raghunathan Rengaswamy, IIT Madras
Inadequate policy focus in smaller cities
Despite their overwhelming presence among the most polluted, small cities remain underrepresented in both research and policy. Studies on air quality disproportionately focus on major metropolitan areas like Delhi and Mumbai, leaving cities like Bhiwadi, Begusarai, or Patna in the shadows. Without data, these cities and their residents remain invisible to policymakers and the pollution in the air remains invisible to the citizens.
The gap in data generated through monitoring and regulation is reflected in the gap in research as well. We reviewed 50 journal articles (both national and international) published in 2022, with reference to air pollution research in Indian city/cities. Only 16% of these studies addressed smaller urban centres, leaving significant gaps in understanding their unique challenges.
Regulatory oversight is weaker in smaller cities, allowing industries and residents to bypass environmental norms more easily. Local initiatives, like waste segregation efforts, operate with limited policy backing.
A one-size-fits-all approach fails to account for the unique challenges faced by such cities, for instance the high contribution of specific pollutants in different city contexts. Without localised strategies tailored to each city’s specific needs, interventions often fall flat.
Along with context specific planning, these cities also need funds along with autonomy and agency to spend them on the most pertinent solutions. To illustrate the point, Bhiwadi used 2,00,000 litres of water daily for almost three months, to suppress road and construction dust in 2021.
There are more advanced and efficient methods of dealing with dust such as responsible use of chemical dust suppressants, ventilation systems and other engineering. However, the human and financial capacity to undertake them is often missing in smaller cities. This gap between intent and execution has left these urban centres gasping for air, literally and figuratively.
New thinking needed for small cities
It’s time to rethink how the air quality and climate change in India’s smaller cities is addressed. These cities, while currently at the suffering end of environmental degradation, can be potent battlegrounds in the fight against it.
The lack of adequate monitoring stations leads to unreliable data and under-informed interventions. Improving this infrastructure is essential for accurately assessing pollution levels, identifying key sources, and designing effective, targeted interventions. Better monitoring can also raise awareness among residents and policymakers, potentially driving more urgent action to address air quality issues in these cities.
Efforts need to be made to ensure continuous data availability. Improving data consistency and adhering to the mandatory monitoring schedules every year is crucial for accurate air quality assessment. Transitioning from manual to real-time monitoring systems can help provide more accurate and timely data. This shift would enable better understanding of city-specific air quality issues and facilitate the development of targeted, real-time solutions and strategies.
Understanding indoor pollution
While outdoor air pollution dominates discussions, indoor air quality in small and mid-sized Indian cities is equally critical but often overlooked. Factors such as traditional cooking fuels, poor ventilation, and the use of mosquito coils and incense sticks significantly contribute to indoor pollution. This issue, frequently treated as an ‘engineering challenge,’ has severe public health impacts, including respiratory infections and cardiovascular problems.
Efforts to address indoor air pollution remain minimal, with limited integration into housing policies or urban planning. Promoting cleaner cooking fuels, better ventilation and awareness is essential.
Read more: Why the air inside your home could be as toxic as that outside
Way forward for India’s smaller cities
India’s small and mid-sized cities stand at the intersection of crisis and opportunity. They may be choking today, but with the right investments and attention, they can become an exemplar for sustainable urban development.
Unlike their metropolitan counterparts, smaller cities have been operating with limited resources and awareness, but they are currently not as polluted as their larger city counterparts and understanding the sources of pollution can be simpler in their case. Hence, it can allow for earlier, more targeted interventions.
Examples of cities like Aurangabad show how local air quality monitoring sensor networks can drive community action. When installed in housing societies, these sensors helped residents monitor real-time air quality changes, leading them to actively seek solutions when pollution levels rose. Active citizens led by Ravi Choudhary were also able to implement community composting programs to address the problem of dry leaf burning in the city.
There are also examples in cities of West Bengal that demonstrate the impact of effective public health communication. In an innovative approach adopted by schools here, children assessed their ability to blow up balloons. This made the abstract concept of air pollution tangible and personal.
Hence, empowering local communities as agents of change should be a key agenda for the way forward. By framing air pollution as a public health issue, rather than a technical one, meaningful engagement can be created with citizens and communities. Simple, community-driven solutions such as waste composting, promoting cleaner cooking fuels, and reducing vehicular emissions can yield significant results.