Artists Talk: Raoul Kerr’s 'Exhale' is More Than Just A Song

While Delhi struggles with it’s usual fate around Diwali, Delhi based rapper, Raoul Kerr, has decided to stop waiting around and has taken matters into his own hands. 

Raoul Kerr recently released his single, ‘Exhale’ which has sparked quite a conversation. In the song, he talks about the consistently deteriorating air quality of the capital city and how it’s becoming a severe health hazard for the people residing in Delhi. Despite the severe situation which should be treated like a national emergency, very little action has been taken by the government to improve upon the situation. While Delhi’s air quality is pretty bad throughout the year, the PM count is especially worse before, during, and after Diwali.

I started writing the song two years back when the major pollution hazard first started and the government didn’t take much of an action. After that, every year, I’ve added a paragraph to the song. And there’s still very little action being taken to improve the situation. The problem is, people forget. They move on. I don’t want to move on. I want to change things this time. I think artists need to take more responsibility and talk about things that matter. There are too many things happening around us for us to talk about.”

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RERS1DWpPAM[/embedyt]   Apart from creating awareness about the situation through his music and making sure that this matter isn’t ignored anymore, Raoul has also created a petition to support his cause.

Now is the time to be proactive and take serious measures to protect the long term respiratory health of our city. Especially for the sake of our kids, they are our future, they are also more vulnerable to the ill effects of pollution because their lungs are still developing.”

The petition urges the government to take the following actions to improve the air quality of Delhi:

1. Permanent ban of the manufacture, sale and bursting of firecrackers in New Delhi, 2019 onwards.
2. Introduction of subsidies for stubble clearance in the form of machinery or manpower for the farms of Punjab and Haryana.
3. Permanent lowering of public transportation costs.
4. Permanent ban of cutting of trees in New Delhi.
5. Allocation of land for planting of trees across New Delhi.
6. Planned, periodic reintroduction of the Odd and Even vehicle initiative.

You can find more details and also sign the petition here.