Deepavali, or Diwali, is a festival of lights. In congested urban India it has increasingly become a festival of noise. Hence, any campaign against noisy crackers and in favour of the more colourful and less polluting ones should be encouraged. School-going children across the country in many liberal institutions of education resolve every year not to contribute to noise and air pollution. Awareness regarding the adverse health effects of both air and noise pollution is growing as the problem grows. However, Deepavali is not the only festival that contributes to the problem of noise pollution, nor is the problem merely an annual feature. Consider the growing use of sound amplifiers at religious gatherings and around places of worship — be they temples or mosques or temporary gatherings around events like Bhagwati Jagrans and public discourses. Many places of worship and gatherings of the faithful use loudspeakers that disturb the neighbourhood peace, when no religion has ordained that electricity-powered loudspeakers be used! The practice of calling the faithful to prayer with the azaan five times a day is intrinsically a beautiful one because the azaan properly rendered is mellifluous and soothing. However, in neighbourhoods across the country, both the faithful and the ‘infidels’ are woken up and their work disturbed by loudspeakers that blare away without let. The same is true around temples and gatherings of other religious groups.
High noise levels have an adverse effect on all living beings, including animals. They contribute universally to growing stress levels and to mortality. Noise restricts the natural habitat of several species of animals. The law, of course, prevents this intrusion of sound into our private space. The Motor Vehicles Act of 1998, for example, has conferred numerous powers on the state administration to monitor noise levels and punish offenders. But, who cares about the law in India? Loudspeakers above a fixed decibel level are banned but used with impunity. Worse, motor vehicle drivers are banned from honking near hospitals and schools, but who cares? Honking is another major source of irritation and tension in urban India. Few countries in the world tolerate such uncivilised behaviour by vehicle drivers as India. Car honking is a universal disease and even the most educated do not seem to regard this as an anti-social activity. Next to loudspeakers and sound amplifiers and motor vehicles, the third most important source of noise pollution in urban India is construction activity. The increasing use of machinery in construction, that too second rate machines that are noisy, is making many neighbourhoods unlivable.
Clearly, all this calls for much greater social awareness, public action and governmental regulation. To expect government authorities alone to tackle the problem is unrealistic. Apart from facilitating corruption, with the polluter paying off an inspector, the problem with government officials is that they often do not wish to punish religious institutions and organisers. Hence, a combination of regulatory activism with public mobilisation would work better. Surprisingly, civil society activism against noise pollution is woefully lacking. While there has been considerable activism against air pollution as well as other forms of environmental pollution, noise pollution still does not get too many city dwellers worked up. Perhaps because we have all come to live with it and contribute to it, and have forgotten what it feels like living in quiet places!
