Along with NGOs Pravaha and Pandies Theatre, they organise meetings and plays to convince children to not buy fire-crackers, thus giving some respite to an already over-polluted city. The message which they want to convey is that Diwali is a festival that can be celebrated without fire-crackers.

Among the schools where meaningful interactions between DPCC and the children have already taken place are Bal Bharati, Salwan Public School, Ramjas School, Ludlow Castle, Manavsthali, Lady Harding, Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan and Kendriya Vidyalaya.

Last year, because of the campaign's success, the level of pollution had fallen in 14 monitoring stations out of the 19 in the city. The extent of dangerous pollutants had fallen between 14 to 19 per centin these areas. Tilak Nagar was one area where air pollution fell dramatically.

``We feel this is the right time to initiate this campaign because we want better results this year and even monitor other parametres like noise this time,'' said E M Dwarkanath, Senior Scientific Officer with the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, in-charge of the programme.

Last year the parametres measured were suspended particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide. On Diwali and the days preceding the festival, the level goes up as much as 40 per cent.

During the interactions, the questions which are frequently asked by the children include ``Why does the government not ban crackers if the situation is so bad?'' The volunteers have to counter by saying that it will only encourage black marketeering and will interfere with religious sentiments of the people. ``We tell them it is only through you that it can be banned,'' said Dwarkanath.