India's Pollution Regulators Are Ineffective Due to a Lack of Expertise, Resources: Report

Abstract

In India, pollution control boards lack expertise, resources, and accountability, leading to ineffective implementation of air pollution control policies. This ineffective enforcement contributes to India having nine of the ten most polluted cities globally and causing 16.8 lakh deaths in 2019 due to long-term exposure to air pollution. Despite the expansion in their scope of work, the budgets and workforce of these boards have not expanded, leaving them overworked and understaffed. Additionally, the boards often lack expert staff and have limited understanding of the health and environmental impacts of air pollution, which further undermines their motivation and accountability. These issues result in their directives often being perceived as bureaucratic obstacles, with other departments not perceiving them as crucial for protecting public health and the environment. Strengthening the boards with more financial and human resources, implementing data compilation and monitoring measures, and engaging stakeholders with different areas of expertise are some suggested solutions to address these problems – AI-generated abstract.