Twelve-year-old Urooj* wants to become a barrister when she grows up. A sixth-grade student in a government school in Uttam Nagar, New Delhi, Urooj struggles whenever schools shut down due to pollution and the classes are moved online. There is no laptop, and just one mobile phone that the family shares.
A barrister, she explains confidently, “is someone who has completed legal education and training in England and is qualified to practice law there. They can work in India only after passing the necessary exams and meeting Bar Council requirements.”
Urooj's dreams of legal studies in England face a more immediate challenge: the toxic air that blankets Delhi-NCR region each winter, forcing schools to shut down and pushing education out of reach for thousands of children like her.
This winter proved no different. As Delhi's Air Quality Index reached critical levels in November 2024, authorities implemented GRAP Stage IV restrictions, leading to widespread school closures. The Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), introduced in 2017, has four stages based on the Air Quality Index (AQI), ranging from moderate to severe.
While the restrictions briefly eased to Stage II on December 5, they were reinstated just eleven days later, forcing schools to adopt hybrid (online and offline) classes for students up to Class V.
“We had online classes, but it is difficult to attend them with just one mobile phone in the household and erratic network connectivity in our area,” she says, her voice tinged with frustration.
Her story represents a harsh reality: when Delhi's air turns toxic, it's not just breathing that becomes difficult – learning becomes nearly impossible for the city's underprivileged children.
Delhi faces severe air pollution every winter due to factors like crop stubble burning in neighbouring states, vehicular emissions, industrial activities, and construction dust. In October and November, farmers burn crop residues to prepare fields for the next season, releasing harmful particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), which often travels to Delhi owing to the wind patterns.
This severe pollution not only disrupts education but also threatens health, contributing to around 54,000 premature deaths in New Delhi in 2020, and nearly 1.7 million across India in 2019, as reported by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. The report also found that pollution levels in North India are ten times higher than anywhere else in the world.
The Digital Divide: A Barrier Beyond Smog
For Urooj and her friends, the shift to online classes reveals deeper challenges stemming from the digital divide. Many families in their neighbourhood lack access to multiple devices, forcing siblings to share one smartphone and rely on unstable internet connections.
Often, the only available device is needed for other purposes, such as a parent’s work or household responsibilities, leaving the children unable to attend their classes consistently.
“Sometimes the phone isn’t even available because my father takes it for work,” she says. Her friends echo similar struggles, lamenting how their education suffers because of limited resources. The lack of proper study spaces at home, compounded by frequent power outages, further hinders their ability to focus on lessons.
To bridge these gaps, Urooj and her peers attend academic support classes organised by Protsahan, an NGO working in underserved communities to combat child abuse and empower adolescent girls.
Children attending Protsahan's academic support classes
"This happens every year. We miss out on crucial lessons because the teacher doesn’t go over the chapters from online classes again, citing time constraints before exams," says one of the girls, flipping through her Mathematics homework during the session conducted by the NGO.
When quizzed about the cause of the closures, the students offer differing views, “It’s because of pollution caused by burning something nearby,” says one. Another attributes it to “smoke from trucks,” while a third insists, “No, no, it’s due to Diwali crackers.”
The Cost of Education in a Digital Divide
While some government schools have successfully transitioned to online classes, many others remain unequipped, leaving numerous children without access to education.
This disparity came to a head in 2020 when a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Delhi High Court. The petition called on the central and Delhi state governments to provide free laptops, tablets, or mobile phones to underprivileged children for online education during the COVID-19 lockdown. It highlighted the challenges faced by these children, especially due to the lack of devices and internet connectivity.
In response, the court described the denial of online education as "digital apartheid" and directed schools to ensure that all students had the necessary tools to participate in online classes.
Highlighting the severity of the digital divide in the city, a report by policy think tanks LIRNEasia and the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations revealed that while 84% of households in Delhi had internet access, only 25% of enrolled students accessed education during the first lockdown.
Thus, despite the availability of the internet, many children are still left behind due to lack of proper devices and support. Notably, there has also been a decline in the union budget for children’s welfare. This imbalance has had a ripple effect on programmes like the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and Anganwadi services, which struggle to deliver impactful foundational education and healthcare for children due to insufficient funding.
The allocation for Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0, designed to address malnutrition among women and children, saw a 2% decrease in 2023-24 compared to the budget allocated in 2019-20.
However, as Sonal Kapoor, CEO of Protsahan, emphasises, it wouldn’t be fair to say the government has done nothing. In 2023-24, the Delhi government allocated Rs 16,575 crore to the education sector, marking a slight increase from the previous year, with a focus on improving infrastructure, including digital resources.
Key initiatives included providing tablets to teachers and students, with plans to equip 350 schools with new computers by 2023-24. Additionally, the government has partnered with organisations to distribute tablets with 10-inch screens and wireless keyboards to all students.
Alluding to the initiatives, Kapoor argues that these efforts fail to make a significant impact, as “supply does not meet the demand”. She further highlights a key challenge: even if communities are provided with tablets and smartphones, many families struggle to afford the additional costs of internet bills required to use them.
Bringing another layer of inequality to light, Kapoor explains, "Suppose one family is given a smartphone. That gadget would end up being used by a 5-year-old boy for playing, but not by a grown girl who studies.” This reveals the gender digital divide within families as well.
The digital divide has also worsened in the wake of pollution-related restrictions in Delhi, exacerbating the struggles of marginalised children. Payal Rani, a social worker at the NGO, emphasises that the divide becomes even more critical during such crises.
"We not only work to rescue girls from rag-picking and begging, but we also help them get enrolled in schools by securing their Aadhaar cards and birth certificates," Rani explains.
"However, our work intensifies when the parents—mostly working in construction—find themselves out of work during pollution restrictions. In their desperation, they often send their children back into the streets, hoping to get an extra pair of hands to support the household," she adds.
This period of just 15 days, when construction work is halted, can alter these children's lives forever. Rani often relies on her network of neighbours to alert her if they spot children being sent back into the streets or forced into labour. Despite this, many parents manage to evade detection.
She recalls a heartbreaking incident of a child marriage, "Once, a family married off their daughter because she was out of school. I tried to intervene with the help of law enforcement, but the family fled to another state to escape the authorities."
Pollution, Poverty, and Survival
For children like Anjali*, the pollution period doesn’t just disrupt their education—it overhauls their lives. Her father, Ravi*, a construction worker, has been out of work during the pollution crisis. With only a feature phone and no access to digital learning tools, Ravi is unable to support his children's education. In a situation where he is uncertain about their next meal, education becomes a low priority.
"Every morning, I used to wait at the chowk for a contractor to pick me up for work. The pay was modest—Rs 500-600 a day—but it was something," Ravi recalls, his voice filled with resignation. "Now, we don’t even have that."
The pollution crisis has taken a severe toll on his work opportunities, and he now relies on sporadic wedding decoration gigs to make ends meet. "These wedding gigs are few and far between, and pay Rs 300-400," he adds, his eyes welling up with tears as he contemplates his family's future.
Ravi and his family of four share a one-room home in the crowded lanes of Uttam Nagar
Similarly, Sahu* faces a different set of hardships, compounded by his ongoing battle with tuberculosis. His wife, Reena*, who bears witness to their daily struggles, explains, "The contractors prefer hiring well-built men, often leaving Sahu behind because his frail body, weakened by tuberculosis, is unfit for hard labour."
As if that wasn’t enough, their meager income barely covers the most basic needs. Reena shares, "We can barely afford vegetables for one meal with the meager income we get during the pollution regulations," her voice tinged with pity. "How can Rs 500 per day be enough for a family of four in this day and age?"
This compounded struggle highlights how pollution goes beyond health, directly affecting income and access to education. A study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says that children exposed to high levels of air pollution are less likely to escape poverty in adulthood, as the environmental factor impacts their future earnings.
Health issues like asthma and cognitive impairments, which are exacerbated by pollution, further hinder school performance and limit social mobility, it read.
For families like Reena’s, the hardships are multilayered—financial insecurity, health struggles, and the relentless impact of pollution. "The pollution is a menace for us," she says, "There’s no money in the house, and my kids can’t even go to school." The inability to work due to pollution restrictions only intensifies the economic strain on their already fragile situation.
Yet, amidst the adversity, Reena refuses to let go of hope for her children's future. "My daughter loves to study. She dreams of becoming a doctor so that her father doesn’t have to stand in long queues at hospitals," says Reena, determination evident in her voice.
Despite the grim realities they face, both Reena and Ravi are resolute in their efforts to ensure that their children's education remains a priority, no matter how difficult the circumstances become. Both of their kids are enrolled in Protsahan’s academic support tutorials, an effort that provides a small but important beacon of hope for their future.
*Names have been changed