With his sweat-drenched T-shirt stuck to his body, Anup Majhi, 37, pauses for a moment beneath the AC blowers in the bus parked in Kolkata’s Esplanade area. A small-time salesman selling pills and potions, Majhi has been hopping on and off buses plying on the 180-km stretch between Esplanade and Digha for the past 26 years.
“Two tablets during the day and two at night, and you will be rid of indigestion or gas,” he promises his customers. In the roughly 10 minutes he spends on the bus, he manages to sell a bottle of pills. On a busy day, Majhi makes a profit of ₹3,000. The sole earning member in his family of four, he has never taken beyond a few days off from work at a stretch. Last month, for the first time, Majhi took a whole month off. The reason: to avoid exhaustion due to the extreme heat. “The moment I would step out of the AC bus, my skin would start burning. I kept falling ill. I incurred a major loss taking a month off. But I have the rest of my life to earn money. If I keep getting sick, there is no point going to work,” he says. He was lucky his family supported him. “They were insistent that I should not go out in this heat.”
From March 1 to June 18 this year, 110 people died due to heatstroke in India, according to data from the Health Ministry. In several places, including New Delhi, maximum temperatures touched nearly 50 degrees Celsius, a record high for the month of June. The capital has banned work on construction sites between noon and 3 p.m., and several hospitals have opened heat stroke wards. The 2023-24 El Nino has been one of the five strongest on record resulting in above-normal temperatures almost everywhere, making 2023 the warmest year on record.
In New Delhi, maximum temperatures touched nearly 50 degrees Celsius, a record high for the month of June. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
An immersion ice bath tub is prepared at the heat stroke ward in Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Informal sector workers such as Majhi, who make up 90% of India’s workforce, are the most susceptible to such climate-related emergencies. According to a World Bank study, India might account for nearly 43% of global job losses from heat stress-associated productivity declines by 2030. The ripple effect from weather-related loss of livelihood is bound to spread far and wide, with people across socio-economic strata being affected over time.
Safety nets needed
The Central government’s Climate Vulnerability Assessment report for 2019-20 had pointed out that all States in India are significantly climate vulnerable. How then can we climate-proof the economy? This will require transforming livelihood sectors and preparing for multi-hazardous conditions rather than single hazards/events, observes Chandni Singh, senior researcher at Indian Institute for Human Settlements and lead author of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) most recent climate report. “This will involve planning for where we work and under what conditions, climate-proofing certain infrastructure and at-risk sectors, providing safety nets for contract labour and insurance incentives for the most exposed,” she says.
For Om Prakash Dubey, a cab driver based in Kolkata, driving has become a chore over the past few months. “I cannot bear the humidity this year. When I’m ferrying passengers and the AC is switched on, it is bearable. I’m trying to cut down on my driving hours, and have my meals on time. My health has deteriorated this year due to the extreme heat. But what can I do?” says the 53-year-old.
Sanjay Lodhi from Uttar Pradesh works in Gujarat’s Changodar making number plates of cars for 12 hours a day. He tells me over phone that he is returning to his village in Unnao after suffering severe heat exhaustion this month. He was hospitalised for four days due to dehydration. His views echo Majhi’s: if he is healthy, he can work in the months ahead. “My colleagues at the factory are also falling sick. It is in my interest that I go back home till the weather changes. I am not returning for another two months at least,” he says.
“Adaptation is important. Currently, there are very limited adaptation strategies in place at the policy and implementation levels. We have to become weather-smart. For instance, if any rigorous outdoor work or construction is being planned, we must check the forecast for the day or week.”Subimal GhoshProfessor, IIT-Bombay
Research shows the cascading effect of climate crisis on mental health as vulnerable groups face the direct and indirect consequences of extreme weather events in their day-to-day lives. According to health economist Barun Kanjilal, who has extensively worked in the climate-vulnerable Sundarbans, climate shocks, especially when they hit a local community repeatedly and unpredictably, directly affect the livelihood security of the people. “This usually leads to a severe disruption of the societal network. The deep sense of livelihood and societal insecurity is an excellent breeding ground for mental health problems among people of all age groups,” he says.
Thick fog in the early morning hours in the midst of a cold wave in New Delhi, January 2024. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
A 2022 IPCC report too had documented that climate change is a threat to people’s mental health and psychological well-being. The scope of manifestations range from emotional distress to anxiety, depression, grief and suicidal behaviour. A World Health Organization (WHO) policy brief recommends solutions such as governments integrating climate considerations with mental health programmes, developing community-based approaches to reduce vulnerabilities, and closing the gap in funding when it comes to mental health and psychosocial support.
Kanjilal says a combination of long-term and short-term strategies should be put in place. Long-term strategies can focus on ensuring economic security by compensating for livelihood loss, a trigger for mental health problems. In the short term, a community-based health programme should be introduced for early detection of mental health issues by trained community members, followed by a referral system for medical intervention.
A hot summer’s day in Ajmer, Rajasthan. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Meanwhile in 2023
A report by the Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment pointed out that while the year 2023 broke global warming records, India suffered extreme weather events on 318 days in the year. The weather events claimed over 3,200 lives, affecting 2.21 million hectare of crop area, and also resulting in the death of over 1.2 lakh animals.
With April to June being unbearably hot this year, and higher temperatures and wildfires being reported from hilly regions across Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir too, lives everywhere have been grossly affected.
“This affects the local population in more than one way. Forest fires damage the surrounding grasslands on which a lot of people are dependent, and the biodiversity of the area is also threatened. Transportation systems and tourism take a massive hit too, which in turn affects local livelihoods,” says Rohit Magotra, deputy director at Integrated Research & Action for Development, a New Delhi-based think tank.
In March 2024, UN Tourism launched a policy guidance for national tourism administrations to assist governments in developing climate action policies and initiatives to support low-carbon transition for tourism. It also provided examples from around the world on how to implement climate-enabling policies.
Says Niloy Nag, founder of Kolkata-based Flying Squirrel Holidays, “Given the climate crisis, we have to be mindful when we plan holidays. We constantly advise our clients on what to expect and how to adapt in cases of sudden weather changes like cloudbursts, landslides or even heatwaves.” Popular hill destinations such as Shimla, Darjeeling and Kashmir continue to be among the top choices with Indian holiday-goers in the summer, he adds.
Vehicles buried under the debris of a landslide triggered by heavy rainfall in Shimla on June 28, 2024. | Photo Credit: PTI
Dealing with unpredictability
According to Subimal Ghosh, a professor at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B), India needs to focus on both adaptation and mitigation strategies. “In fact, I would say adaptation is more important. Currently, there are very limited adaptation strategies in place at the policy and implementation levels.”
When it comes to water, food, health, transportation or the infrastructure sector, decisions should be taken based on the weather forecast. “If any rigorous outdoor work or construction is being planned, we must check the forecast for the day or week. We have to become weather-smart. A mechanism must be designed to deal with unpredictable weather conditions,” adds Ghosh.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) says artificial intelligence, drones, Earth observation, advanced computing, the Internet of Things and virtual and augmented reality are six technologies critical for climate adaptation. According to director Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, in an interview to PTI this April, the India Meteorological Department currently uses AI in a limited way, but plans to enhance models and techniques significantly in the next five years. He acknowledges the need for village-level information to provide sector-specific inputs in agriculture, health, urban planning, hydrology and environment.
Senior researcher Singh says that early warning systems must be strengthened to improve usability of advisories, and to make them more accessible to people. She adds that space must be earmarked for building blue-green infrastructure, and a budget kept aside in urban planning. In addition, a range of adaptive strategies need to be adopted for the most vulnerable in crowded urban spaces.
Cities, depending on their levels of humidity and heat stress, must also develop cooling shelters for an outdoor population that is continuously exposed to extreme heat, says Vishwas Chitale, senior programme lead at Delhi-based thinktank Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW). He adds that gardens and parks must be kept open through the day so that people can rest under the trees. “We have to develop heat action plans to quantify where vulnerable populations are located, so that we can pinpoint where the heat impacts is the most and prepare accordingly.” When it comes to medical facilities, more cities and hospitals need to operate heatstroke wards, says Chitale.
Motorists ride on a flooded road near Kottayam in Kerala | Photo Credit: Vishnu Prathap
Grassroots organisation Mahila Housing Trust, which works with women in 10 cities across India, has implemented many small-scale climate resilient initiatives at the homes of its members, such as using reflective paint, installing bamboo roofing, and targeted cool-roof programmes in vulnerable settlements.
The Compendium of Best Practices on Climate Action from Indian States reports that the role of regional and tailored initiatives is essential in achieving India’s national goal to address climate change. A WEF report details how local communities are adapting to climate crisis, including harvesting floodwater for agriculture, cropping traditional varieties to overcome agrarian crisis, and raising awareness around mangrove conservation in Mumbai, among others.
According to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (October 2015 to July 2023), incremental adaptation alone will not be enough for Asia, which is one of the most vulnerable to climate change: transformational change is the key. Interventions such as ‘climate-smart agriculture’ (for instance, precision irrigation, drip irrigation, collecting rainwater) as seen in South and Southeast Asian countries, or changing labour laws to reduce exposure to heat as seen in West Asia, would be the way forward, the report says. The biggest challenges that Asia will face under climate crisis are around water and food insecurity, poverty and inequality, and increased frequency and severity of extreme events, the report adds.
While climate crisis is threatening lives and livelihoods globally, all hope is not lost. Small-scale efforts, informed choices, improved sectoral policymaking, and implementing global, national and regional policies with sustained behavioural changes of local population can slow the crisis. Low carbon lifestyles such as saving energy at home, changing sources of energy, switching to electric vehicles, are among small-scale solutions that can go a long way in reducing emissions.
The writer is an independent journalist.
