Denying a problem is the surest way to perpetuate it. Yet, successive Indian governments have done precisely that about the terrible quality of air in Indian cities. Thus, when a study by the World Health Organization last year described Indian cities as "death traps" because of "very high air pollution levels", the government refused to accept it. The same official response greeted another WHO report that said that New Delhi's air was more polluted than that of Beijing. Given the government's preference for the denial mode, the launching of an air quality index for Indian cities is a welcome change. By doing this, Narendra Modi has accepted the fact that it is not fair to hide facts about the foul air in Indian cities either from the people or from the world. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the prime minister's other major programme, also starts with an admission that India has remained a dirty nation for far too long. The air quality index, which he launched for 10 major cities to start with, will eventually be extended to more than 60 cities across the country. A responsible government has a moral duty to ensure that the citizens breathe clean air. If it fails to do so, the least it should do is come clean on the poison in the air so that the people know about the danger and try to protect themselves in their own ways.

However, what the citizens do on their own can have only a marginal effect. It is the government's policies and actions - or the lack of them - that alone can make a big change. If things have come to such a sorry pass, it is primarily because governments at the Centre and also in the states failed to stem the rot. Monitoring the quality of air in the cities and letting the people know the facts do not obviously take the problem away. What matters ultimately is what the governments do with the facts. The issue is also not about environmental laws, because many such laws have been enacted in recent years. The problem usually is that the laws are rarely enforced. Worse still, the official agencies that are supposed to set or monitor environmental guidelines do not take their work seriously. Dust from construction sites and emissions from cars are known to be the main sources of air pollution in urban centres. In its dizzy rush for urbanization and economic growth, China saw its air and water polluted abysmally. New Delhi can learn some lessons from Beijing's latest emergency plans to fight the battle against the smog over Chinese cities.