You're listening to the inquiry on the BBC World Service with me, Kavita Puri.

Each week, one question, four expert witnesses and an answer. It's 8 in the morning and Vickers is driving to work.

The conditions are treacherous.

Engulfing him is a thick, gray smog.

That sound you can hear are his hazard lights. He can barely see beyond a few feet. When he gets out of his

car he puts on his gas mask. There are no children on the streets.

They've been told to stay indoors until further notice. Their schools have been shut.

All flights are cancelled,

and a state of medical emergency is declared.

This is Delhi, India's capital.

In November last year when Vikas was on his daily commute, pollution levels reached 30 times the World Health Organization's safe limits.

The city is one of the most polluted in the world.

At its worst, it's like Delhi's residents are smoking 50 cigarettes a day. Air pollution affects every one of us who lives in the city wherever we are in the world.

And in Delhi, many citizens have had enough.

They're saying good air quality is a human right.

So this week we're asking,

can Delhi clean its air.

Part one, the monster. So let me tell you how it is for us. Essentially living in Delhi today meals that if your work or your life revolves around being in the open. You are poisoning yourself.

Barti Chautuvedi was so concerned at the toxic effect of air pollution she founded Chintan, an environmental research and

action group to highlight the dangers of breathing in dirty air.

You're basically shortening your life, you're giving your life away in order to live in the city and to feed your family.

Those chemicals that shorten your life in Delhi and other cities and form air pollution are a complicated mix.

...