9 year-old climate activist detained in Delhi

9 yr old Manipuri activist Licypriya Kangujam and fellow climate activist, 12 yr old Aarav Seth were protesting outside the Parliament House in Delhi on Sunday, 18th October when they were cornered and then escorted to a police vehicle. Both of the minors were then “briefly detained” from their protesting site for 40 minutes before being taken to an undisclosed location later.

The activist says that the police debated taking them to the Parliament House Police Station but eventually dropped them off in Jantar Mantar. While the cops treated her as their “daughter”--a sentiment that was appreciated by the minor--they warned her against future consequences if she protested at that site again.

“But I will go & protest again. This is my right to raise the voice to give us clean air to breathe. If I don’t tell to our leaders then to whom I should tell? My demand is for them too,” Kangujam added in a tweet. However, the activist expresses regret at having protested at one of the most highly restricted security zones in India. All this during a week when the capital recorded an Air Quality Index at an eight-month low of 312 on Thursday (a satisfactory AQI being below 100).

According to a report submitted by Health Effects Institute, air pollution kills nearly 1.2 lakh infants in their first month of life in India (and around 5L globally). Despite the varied warnings, India’s dependence on coal (a major factor to air pollution) sees no decline, even going so far as to become the fastest growing (6%) internationally.

On Friday, 23rd October, Licpriya Kangujam resumed her protest outside the Parliament House, this time armed with red roses to gift to the officers who had previously detained her. “Asking clean air to breathe is not a crime”, tweets Licpriya.

#environment