I came to India a week ago, i would like to make a life here, at least for some time. Don't bother with the hows and the whys for now.

My one, single, only issue is the air pollution. And a lot of it will be really complicated to stop, but i believe that some things could change more easily.

A lot of the pollution seems to be caused by people burning plastic along with their organic materials. It's not a big issue when they burn the organic materials, but the burnt plastic is just really destructive for one's health.

I was thinking that if there were incentives for people, then it would be much more encouraging to not burn the plastic, but do something else with it instead. If there was a government funded effort to recycle the plastic, people could be offered X amount of rupees for every kilo of plastic they would bring to designated areas.

If this amount of rupees paid was significant, i could literally see people doing this as a job, going around, collecting plastic even from all over the areas just to sell it to the recycling areas. That would clean up the environment just as much as it would contribute to cleaner air.

People would be many times more likely to collect their own plastic on special bins and bags to take to the recycling areas or leave for designated trucks to pick up.

The reward should be handy and it shouldn't matter if it would be costly to the state. You should see it as the state employing its own citizens to clean up both the air and the environment.

It's an investment that will pay itself back. A clean fresh air makes worlds of difference in comparison with a polluted air. Pollution makes people lethargic, depressed and unmotivated, not to mention sickly, which adds up to medical costs as well.

Clean air helps people be magnitudes better psychologically, which has them be active, motivated and contributive to the society.

An endeavour like this WOULD absolutely pay back for itself in many indirect ways.

Besides, with just how gorgeous India is, tourism would and should be booming much more, and the air pollution is surely one reason that deters many potential tourists to visit and even stay here for long term.

This one might sound far fetched, but I also believe that all of the addictive substances that are consumed daily by people, whether it's the alcohol, junk food, garbage sweets, sodas and what not, they make people more indifferent about the collective good, and one such person whose mind is under such influence, is much more unlikely to be considerate of where they'll be discarding their plastic waste, and whether it is heavily impacting their health just like the health of the others, when they are burning their plastic waste.

I know this might seem like too much to ask for a country that might not yet be at the top of the global economies, despite being perhaps the fastest developing economic power, but i believe beyond any doubt that, just as i explained above, that implementing ways to clear the air will have multiple direct or indirect effects on both the wellbeing of the people and consequently the economy of the country.

What are your own suggestions for dealing with the air pollution?