My right to breathe.
That was the message a group of us wanted to share this morning, as we ran wearing protective face masks in the heart of New Delhi, a city with the unenviable reputation of being one of the most polluted on the planet.
Just think about it – having to protest for your right to breathe.
Surely, amongst all the “rights” we claim to have, or that we should have, or that we’d like to have – surely the right to clean air is a pretty basic one?
But no.
As all of us who live here know only too well, clean air is by no means our birthright.
Our message will (sadly) resonate ever louder as Delhi moves towards cooler weather and the accompanying horrific air quality.
Today our run was all about highlighting the problem, creating awareness, getting people engaged, and I hope that as we ran up and down Raj Path in our masks, people did indeed take notice.
Our Delhi government is certainly beginning to make some noise about the impending shocking air quality.
This was in the paper this morning:
We are, of course, heading towards elections. Hence the concern.
But, you know what?
Whatever it takes.
If fears of the elections pushes the powers that be into taking some anti-pollution measures, however inadequate, it’s a tiny step in the right direction.
“Pollution…is going to be one of the main political issues in the upcoming assembly elections…”
Remember those words, dear reader.
So, this was our first run, aimed at raising awareness.
We will be running again, in our masks, in 2 weeks. Check social media for details!
Let me end with a short clip of our run.
Super cool 😛