Air No Care! 1 in 3 of Delhi-NCR Families Likely to Burn Firecrackers this Diwali, Finds LocalCircles Survey

Despite the air pollution and a ban, one in three Delhi-NCR families are likely to burn firecrackers this Diwali, a survey by LocalCircles has found.

In the LocalCircles survey last week, 75% residents of Delhi-NCR surveyed had listed out stubble burning in the states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh as the top cause of pollution in the city. Though most have refrained from burning crackers in recent years on Diwali, there is a sizable group of residents who believe that burning crackers on festivals hardly makes a difference and must continue. Firecracker sounds were heard across many parts of Delhi-NCR at moon sighting on the festival of Karwa Chauth on November 1.

LocalCircles conducted a survey which received over 9000 responses from residents of Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram and Faridabad. A total of 67% respondents were men, while 33% respondents were women.

THE QUESTION

The survey asked residents of Delhi-NCR, “What do you plan to do this Diwali in regard to fire crackers?”

Of the 9,836 respondents to this query, 43% stated that they “will not be burning any crackers as they cause pollution”; 6% stated they “will not be burning as there is a cracker ban in place in my city”; 13% indicated that though they would “like to burn crackers but they aren’t available in my city”; 6% of respondents stated that they “will burn crackers and have already got them from Delhi itself”; 13% indicated that they “will burn crackers and have already got them from NCR cities”; another 13% of respondents shared that they ‘will burn crackers and they know how to get them”.

In addition, 6% of respondents did not give a clear response opting for “can’t say”. The survey shows that 32% of Delhi-NCR families surveyed are likely to burn crackers this Diwali despite the ban in Delhi and restrictions in other cities in the NCR.

There is only a slight dip in families planning to burn crackers in Delhi-NCR from 39% last year to 32% this year, which is the same as found in the 2018 survey and also in 2021, during the pandemic years.

Data from past years shows a 100-300 point increase in the AQI levels the next day after Diwali in comparison to the previous day.

The survey was conducted via LocalCircles platform and all participants were validated citizens who had to be registered with LocalCircles to participate in this survey.

LocalCircles is a community social media platform that enables citizens and small businesses to escalate issues for policy and enforcement interventions and enables the government to make policies that are citizen and small business centric.