Each winter, as a dense grey veil settles over Delhi, the familiar rituals begin. Schools scramble to adjust timetables, construction sites fall silent, and anxious parents weigh the impossible choice between sending their children outdoors or confining them to cramped rooms. What has changed in recent years is the scale of the fear. This is no longer about seasonal discomfort. It is about a generation of children whose bodies are being shaped, and in many cases scarred, by the air they breathe.

Paediatricians across the National Capital Region have been sounding the alarm for years, but the surge in respiratory illnesses this season feels especially grim. Waiting rooms are overflowing with infants who wheeze through the night, toddlers who vomit from violent coughing bouts, and adolescents who cannot play a simple game of football without triggering breathlessness. Doctors describe a dramatic........

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