India’s air in the northern plains is visibly polluted. Air inside homes is likely unbreathable, too. But this is now an annual occurrence; little seems to change. Why, then, has this become one more harm we live with, almost silently?
Is it that we still don’t fully grasp what it means to breathe such polluted air? The science has been clear for years: Pollution is cutting our lives short. So, what’s missing is not information; it’s the right storytelling.
We still haven’t found a way to make clean air an issue that truly moves people, policymakers, and markets. The discourse remains centered on measurements — with hints of flaws — and blame, not so much the human costs of pollution, especially on health. When citizens see air pollution as an environmental issue, it feels distant. But when it is framed as a public health emergency stealing years from our lives, the response becomes more urgent, more personal, and, ultimately, more political.
A shift from evidence to stories making clear the human cost is how communication can shape policy. Consider the University of Chicago’s Air Quality Life Index: By translating pollution levels into years of life lost, it changed how people view the stakes involved. The conversation was not about micrograms of pollutant concentration but about time lost — of togetherness for families, of education, play, and other activities for children, thanks to related illnesses, of productivity due to worker absence. That’s the kind of storytelling India needs, connecting science to lived experience.
But awareness alone cannot create action. To change outcomes, stories must be paired with clear policy pathways and, sometimes, even incentives. The Emissions Market Accelerator, which helps governments in the Global South design and deploy market solutions to reduce pollution and foster economic growth, reminds us that when industries are given both a structure and a stake — when cleaner operations are economically rewarded — industry behavior shifts. This is true for citizens and governments as well. Clean air stories must therefore not only describe the problem but also show what action looks like and who benefits from it.
When we start localizing the problem, people begin to see themselves in the story and are more inclined to act. City-specific data, community health impacts, or neighborhood stories make the air quality issue tangible. It is thus critical that local journalists, civil society groups, and doctors and researchers help tell these stories that move the conversation beyond air quality readings — this is not to say that the readings and their integrity aren’t important — and speak directly to municipal realities in local languages.
Second, effective narratives will need to build connections across sectors and talk about shared benefits. Air pollution sits at the intersection of energy, transport, waste, and agriculture, among others. Storytelling that shows how cleaning the air also improves public health, saves health care costs, and aligns with climate goals will deliver a greater impetus to collaborative action. The narrative has to spotlight economic gains because, unless there is talk about how one becomes poorer by breathing toxic air, it is hard to move the needle.
Third, the narrative must sustain attention from all stakeholders. India’s air pollution problem is persistent, but public attention is seasonal. We need communication models that persist beyond the pollution season — perhaps through more local research studies giving granular pollution data and disclosing health impacts, year-round school engagement, partnership with the local media, and effective online dissemination. Messages must inspire a high degree of trust. So, a framework for scientists, communicators, and journalists to work together is clearly needed.
Where should one start to ensure the narrative truly changes? First, for policymakers, messages must link air quality to public health and economic productivity. For citizens, clean air should be linked to personal well-being, and for industries, the links between compliance and cost-saving and reputation building must be established. The faster India’s air pollution narrative moves from awareness to accountability and from dinner tables and newsrooms to election rallies and policy tables, the sooner we can have more robust policy prioritizing the gains for human health from fighting pollution.
India’s clean-air story must not be written in laboratories and data logs alone or remain confined to government circulars. It must be shaped by how we speak about the air we breathe. The task before communicators, researchers, and policymakers, thus, is to ensure that India’s air pollution narrative unites solutions and stakeholders.
Ashirbad S Raha leads communications for University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute in India and South Asia. The views expressed are personal
