A New Delhi primary school director, one of her pupils and her mother, bemoan the decision by the local authorities to order schools in the Indian capital to close and take classes online due to air pollution. "While online classes are okay for a short period, after that, children often end up playing or not studying at all, and parents have no way of knowing," says Maya Devi, a domestic worker and parent. "Pollution is rising, we agree. But is it really mattering to the same child who would breathe that same air in the school and at his home, because these are all neighborhood schools?" asks Sunita Bhasin, director of Swami Sivananda Memorial Institute school in New Delhi. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES