Crisis deepens

For more than a decade now, Delhi has lived with the strange normalcy of poisoned air.

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As winter approaches, the capital braces itself for a familiar descent into toxic haze, punctuated by emergency advisories, school closures, and a flurry of courtroom interventions. But the latest figures on acute respiratory illnesses should end any pretence that this is just another cyclic inconvenience. The city is in the midst of a slow-moving public-health disaster.

Between 2022 and 2024, six government hospitals in Delhi recorded more than 200,000 cases of acute respiratory infections, with over 30,000 patients requiring hospitalisation. These are conservative numbers ~ public hospitals serve only a slice of the population, and they capture only those sick enough to seek formal care. If the impact across private hospitals, clinics, and households were accounted for, the human cost would likely be far higher.