Mumbai: Low attendance and sick leave rise as polluted air chokes city

As Mumbairsquos Air Quality Index AQI sees a sharp decline schools have been seeing students call in sick owing to flu and congestion Given that the yearend also factors in sports days and cultural events into the school calendars educationists and parents have been especially careful tooTalking to midday Principal of Mulundbased St Pius X School Fr Norbert DrsquoSouza said ldquoThe sports day practice is underway at our school and the students are preparing for the march past and other events Given that our school campus is surrounded by construction sites the dust makes matters worse for the studentsrdquoldquoOur students have started wearing masks to school and practices since the sports day is right around the corner Our premises are also surrounded with redevelopment projects so there is also the dust factorrdquo said Principal Taskeen Bhore of Diamond Jubilee School Mazagaon The educationist reported that the school has seen cases of students falling ill from flu or congestionThick smog blurs skyline in the city on Monday FILE PICASHISH RAJEDadarrsquos Dr Antonio Da Silva School also reported a lot of student absenteeism ldquoWhile students have shown irregularities in attendance a lot of our teaching body is under the weather as wellrdquo said the principal Christabel DSouzaOther prominent schools in the city such as the Dhirubhai Ambani International School have already set up air purifiers on their premises ldquoWe even have an air quality monitor and a protocol where students dont go out to play if the air quality slides below a certain pointrdquo said Abhimanyu Basu school director Seeing the air conditions in Mumbai many parents have also begun considering whether portable air purifiers are the way to go nowldquoMany concerned parents have begun calling educationists wondering what schooling would look like if these conditions persist At the moment we can bring back the masks and avoid letting children play outdoors when there is too much smogrdquo said Dr Swati Popat Vats an early childcare expert and an educationistOn Tuesday morning all eight matches organised by the Mumbai Cricket Association MCA went on as planned ldquoI have seen one in five of our athletes catch a cold cough or even a fever However since they are young they recover fasterrdquo said Nadim Memon MCA apex council memberAir quality lsquomoderatersquoMumbai on Tuesday morning recorded an AQI of 174 moderate category This level of pollution can cause adverse health effects especially for sensitive groups On Monday the cityrsquos AQI was 176 and on Sunday it recorded an AQI of 186 with ozone being the primary pollutant According to the CPCB an AQI between 0 and 50 is considered lsquogoodrsquo 51 and 100 lsquosatisfactoryrsquo 101 and 200 lsquomoderatersquo 201 and 300 lsquopoorrsquo 301 and 400 lsquovery poorrsquo and 401 and 500 lsquoseverersquo The areas worst affected by pollution continue to be BKC DeonarGovandi Kurla and Wadala with smog reported during dawnManoj Kumar analyst Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air said ldquoMumbai typically experiences a rise in air pollution during the winter months As temperatures drop the formation of shallow temperature inversions especially during early mornings and late evenings reduces vertical mixing of air At the same time the weakening of the cityrsquos sea breeze and land breeze circulation slows pollutant dispersion This allows emissions from traffic construction activity industries and power plants to accumulaterdquoAbout 40 per cent of the worst AQI days recorded in Mumbai in 2023 and 2024 were during the winter months mdash December January and February according to information from the Central Pollution Control Boards CPCB data repositoryIn 2023 Mumbai recorded 145 days in the moderate AQI category and 35 days in the poor AQI category totalling 180 days of bad AQI Of these 45 days were during the winter months Similarly in 2024 145 days reported AQI in the moderate category and two days reported AQI in the poor category of which 70 days were from the winter months