“Even Breathing Feels Like Suffering”: Rethinking Information Infrastructures for Pollution and Marginalized Livelihoods

Paper Title

“Even Breathing Feels Like Suffering”: Rethinking Information Infrastructures for Pollution and Marginalized Livelihoods

Publication Info

• Topic area: Intersection of air pollution, structural violence, and HCI interventions for marginalized communities.
• Keywords: Air pollution, structural violence, marginalized communities, HCI4D, IVR systems, WhatsApp, environmental justice, participatory design, misinformation, socio-economic impacts.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Existing ICT-based solutions for air pollution awareness often fail to address the needs of marginalized communities due to barriers like low literacy, limited digital access, and lack of trust. These populations face disproportionate socio-economic and health burdens from pollution, yet remain excluded from relevant, actionable information.
• Significance: Air pollution is a leading global health risk, contributing to millions of deaths annually. Marginalized groups, such as daily wagers in Delhi, are not only more exposed to pollution but also face livelihood disruptions due to pollution-related restrictions, exacerbating structural inequalities.
• Motivation and related work: Prior HCI research has focused on environmental awareness, participatory sensing, and citizen science but has largely overlooked the socio-economic disruptions caused by pollution. Existing solutions are often inaccessible to low-literate, resource-constrained populations. This study addresses this gap by exploring how HCI can design inclusive, justice-oriented information infrastructures.

Solution

• Proposed approach: Development and evaluation of two low-cost, accessible prototypes—an IVR system (Pradushan Suraksha Seva) and a WhatsApp-based system—to deliver actionable, trusted, and context-specific information on air pollution to marginalized communities in Delhi.
• Novelty:
  1. Highlights the socio-economic impacts of air pollution on marginalized workers beyond health.
  2. Identifies gaps in existing information infrastructures and the role of misinformation in deepening vulnerabilities.
  3. Designs and evaluates low-literacy-friendly, accessible communication tools tailored to the lived realities of daily wagers.
  4. Proposes a framework for integrating trust, accessibility, and equity into environmental information systems.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Conducted 25 semi-structured interviews with daily wagers (rickshaw drivers and construction laborers) in Delhi to understand their lived experiences and information needs.
  • Designed two prototypes: an IVR system for audio-based information delivery and a WhatsApp system for multimodal communication.
  • Evaluated the prototypes with 10 participants to assess usability, trust, and relevance, using observations and follow-up interviews.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Participants experienced air pollution as structural violence, with impacts extending beyond health to economic precarity, psychological distress, and social exclusion.
  • Misinformation and lack of accessible information were pervasive, leaving communities reliant on unsafe remedies and hearsay.
  • IVR and WhatsApp systems were found to be feasible and acceptable, with IVR being more inclusive for low-literate users and WhatsApp preferred for its flexibility.
• Advantage over baselines:
  • Addressed critical gaps in existing information systems by providing actionable, context-specific guidance in Hindi.
  • Demonstrated the potential of low-tech, accessible solutions to mitigate structural inequalities in information access.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Prototypes were tested with 10 participants, focusing on usability, trust, and acceptance.
  • IVR was praised for its simplicity and accessibility, while WhatsApp was valued for its asynchronous interaction.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Limited evaluation during periods of lower pollution; future studies should test the systems during peak pollution episodes.
  • Participants suggested expanding the systems to include information on other health risks and livelihood opportunities.
  • Future work could explore integrating AI-driven personalization and participatory sensing for more dynamic, context-specific information delivery.

Summary

This study examines the intersection of air pollution, structural violence, and marginalized livelihoods in Delhi, highlighting the socio-economic and informational vulnerabilities faced by daily wagers. By designing and evaluating low-cost IVR and WhatsApp-based prototypes, the research demonstrates how accessible technologies can bridge critical information gaps and build trust in resource-constrained settings. The findings underscore the importance of context-specific, inclusive design in addressing environmental justice issues and propose pathways for integrating low-tech solutions with emerging AI-driven systems to enhance scalability and personalization. These insights contribute to HCI’s role in fostering equitable, sustainable, and justice-oriented interventions.