More than half of India’s population, living in 344 districts, face high or very high health vulnerability induced by climate change. People are increasingly being exposed to the effects of climate change, such as prolonged summers, heavy and unpredictable rains, floods and droughts, and rising sea levels and melting glaciers. As a result, they fall ill more often, face a greater risk of future ailments, lose livelihoods, get pushed into poverty, and are forced to migrate. People fight and try to adapt to these changes and prepare themselves better for future events. Vulnerability is a vector produced out of the dynamics between exposure and sensitivity on the one hand and people’s ability to adapt or fight on the other.
However, the same exposure may not have the same health consequences for everyone. People who are exposed to higher green cover, have better living conditions, education, secured work, better social safety nets and resilient health systems would be able to adapt to the changes and mitigate the consequences better. People who live on the margins, whose livelihoods are not secured, and who have to pay when someone in the family falls ill will be more vulnerable to these changes.
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