India’s heat action plans exclude the most vulnerable: Report

A labourer works at a construction site on a hot summer day in Noida outside New Delhi [File: Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters]

With temperatures set to soar next month, Indian authorities need more resources and better preparation to deal with searing heat, particularly for the most vulnerable communities around the country, a New Delhi-based think tank has said.

Analysing 37 regional and federal heat action plans, the Centre for Policy Research found this week that the plans are not updated regularly, do not have separate budgets in most cases, have no legal support to implement them, and that the most vulnerable populations in any given region are not identified in the plans.