Delhi's School Shutdown
Isn't just an announcement—it's a symptom of how we've
normalized breathing poison.
The Three-Tier Reality
Nursery to Class V: Fully online. No exceptions. The message is clear—we won't
risk developing lungs when the AQI hits 400+.
Classes VI-XI: Hybrid model with "parental choice." Sounds empowering
until you realize it transfers an impossible decision to families. How do you
weigh your child's respiratory health against educational gaps? And not every
home has the resources to make online learning work.
Classes X and XII: Physical classes continue because board exams apparently
trump toxic air. Those "strict safety advisories" are doing heavy
lifting when stepping outside means inhaling hazard.
The Bigger Picture Nobody's Saying
This isn't emergency protocol anymore—it's operational procedure. We've built
detailed systems for managing a crisis instead of solving it. Delhi's children
can't reliably access education without health trade-offs, and we're calling
that adaptation.
Work-from-home mandates, vehicle bans, construction halts—each necessary
measure hits the most vulnerable hardest. Daily wage workers lose income.
Families without devices lose access. Meanwhile, we've normalized checking AQI
like weather forecasts.
The Uncomfortable Truth
There's a generation growing up with education interrupted by COVID, then
pollution, sometimes both. We're teaching kids resilience when we should be
demanding accountability. The question isn't whether these closures are
right—it's why we accept a reality where they're necessary at all.
The schools will reopen when the air clears. But when will we stop managing the
smoke and start putting out the fire?
Clean air shouldn't be seasonal. Education shouldn't come with respiratory risk
calculations. And our children's lungs shouldn't be the testing ground for how
much adaptation is humanly possible.
Until we treat breathable air as a right, not a privilege, this will just keep
happening—and we'll keep calling it normal.
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