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Posted: 2018-01-23T10:46:12Z | Updated: 2018-01-23T23:05:25Z

NEW DELHI Farida used to live in Pul Mithai, one of New Delhis biggest slums. Every morning, she would go to the market and wait around the trucks to collect any spilled grains or discarded fruits and vegetables, which she would then clean and sell.

Last month, government officials evicted Farida along with her husband, two children and hundreds of others who lived in the slum. Land rights activists allege that the eviction was a part of Clean India, a program championed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to spruce up his countrys image and promote cleanliness, in part by clearing out slums such as Pul Mithai.

Forced to live on the street, Farida and her family are now even more exposed to the citys notorious air pollution, which this year reached record highs, forcing the government to shut down schools and airlines to cancel flights.

The air pollution has given Farida a permanent cough and makes her childrens eyes burn and water. But Farida, who asked that her last name not be used, has nowhere to go or any way to protect herself or her children against the fumes. She now lives under a busy elevated highway, where she has fashioned beds from bits of plastic and string among the debris of broken furniture, torn tarpaulin and broken bamboo. Trucks belch out thick clouds of smoke as they drive by on their way to the market, and the air is dank with the smell of urine and burning plastic.

Sometimes the whole place smells of petrol, she said. But what choice do we have?

Pollution recently reached record highs in Delhi, with some parts of Indias capital reporting levels in early November that were almost five times those considered unhealthy by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The pollution sparked a political crisis and brought hundreds of people to protest outside parliament.

The government issued a health warning , suggesting that people stay home or carpool to work. But while more affluent Delhi residents could buy air purifiers, wear masks or stay indoors, the homeless had no such choice, and faced increased risk of respiratory problems, bronchitis and even possibly tuberculosis as a result of the pollution.

One in six deaths worldwide is caused by pollution, according to an October report in the Lancet medical journal. Diseases caused by pollution were responsible for an estimated 9 million premature deaths in 2015, according to the report, three times more deaths than from AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined and 15 times more than from all wars and other forms of violence.

It added, In the most severely affected countries, pollution-related disease is responsible for more than one death in four.

The same study ranked India as the country with the most pollution-related deaths in the world that year. With 2.5 million people dying early because of pollution, India accounted for 28 percent of the worlds pollution-related deaths.

Indians from low-income groups, predictably, have taken the biggest hit. According to the report , 92 percent of pollution-related deaths in India in 2015 occurred in the middle and low-income groups of the country.

The countrys millions of poor and homeless are disproportionately affected by pollution: They are more likely to live near its sources, they have less access to good health care, and any air pollution-related health problems may be exacerbated by other issues they face, including malnutrition and lack of access to clean water.

The number of homeless people in Delhi, a city of 11 million people, is disputed and politicized. The Housing and Land Rights Network , an Indian NGO, estimates the population is between 150,000 and 200,000 people, though the figure could be much higher.

In addition to being exposed to factory emissions, burning fields and car exhaust, the homeless and those who live in the slums often light fires to cook or keep warm, sometimes burning plastic or rubber such as discarded tires, the fumes of which are highly toxic.

But the central and state governments have done little to protect the citys homeless from pollution, several grassroots activists argue. For a few weeks in 2016 and 2017, the Delhi government floated a scheme to cut down on vehicular pollution in the city. During this period, cars with odd registration numbers and even registration numbers were allowed to drive on alternate days.

But despite the governments claims of success, the schemes effect on the citys levels of pollution was disputed and inconclusive, and the program was eventually shelved.

In November 2017, amid spiraling pollution, the Delhi state government attempted to sprinkle water from helicopters to absorb pollutants and dissipate the smog. But the smog cover was so dense that the helicopters couldnt take off.

Commenting on the evictions at Pul Mithai, Ashok Pandey, member of an NGO that works on land rights, said, Not only is the central government not doing anything for the homeless, now they are taking away the little they have built themselves. How are infants and old people supposed to survive in cold and pollution?