India’s heat action plans ignore women—that has to change

As India enters yet another summer of searing heat, the deadly 2024 heatwave — over 30 consecutive days of temperatures above 45°C — looms large. It was the most intense in recent history, claiming lives, overwhelming hospitals, and pushing public infrastructure to its limits. But while the visible destruction made headlines, another, quieter crisis played out in homes, clinics, and relief camps across India: the unravelling of women’s sexual and reproductive health.

Extreme heat is not just a weather event — it is a physiological and social stressor. Pregnant women, in particular, are vulnerable to heat-related complications including miscarriage, stillbirth, preterm labour, and conditions like eclampsia and gestational hypertension. 

Studies from the George Institute for Global Health have confirmed the direct links between high temperatures and adverse pregnancy outcomes such as low birth weight and neonatal death. Yet, India’s climate action plans, including its Heat Action Plans, remain largely gender blind. They focus on early warnings and cooling shelters, but fail to account for the health needs of pregnant women, lactating mothers, or adolescent girls.

This neglect is part of a broader and deeply concerning pattern: the failure to recognise sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) as integral to climate resilience. The assumption that bodily autonomy is a secondary concern in the face of disaster is not only inaccurate — it is dangerous. When floods, droughts, or heatwaves strike, access to contraception, maternal care, and menstrual hygiene gets disrupted. Clinics shut down, supply chains break, and services deemed ‘non-essential’ are quietly sidelined. In flood-affected Assam and Bihar, women reported being unable to access antenatal checkups or safe delivery facilities. In urban slums, where water scarcity and heat are daily realities, pregnant women face dehydration, respiratory illness, and emotional stress, with minimal support.

The consequences of climate disruption ripple through every stage of a woman’s life. When droughts diminish household income, adolescent girls are often pulled out of school, or married early to ease economic pressure. A study commissioned by the Ministry of Women and Child Development found that exposure to drought increases the likelihood of underweight women by 35% and child marriage by 37%. 

These figures are not just statistics — they represent futures lost, rights denied, and lives at risk. In displacement camps, adolescent girls face heightened risks of violence, early pregnancy, and school dropouts, all of which go unaddressed in mainstream climate responses.

Despite this, reproductive health continues to be treated as a footnote in national and state-level climate frameworks. India’s climate plans remain focused on mitigation — on carbon emissions and renewable energy — rather than on adaptation strategies that centrepeople, particularly women and gender-diverse communities. 

Of the 119 countries reviewed globally, only 38 explicitly integrate SRHR into their climate strategies. India is not yet among them. Even globally recommended protocols like the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP), which outlines essential reproductive health services during emergencies, have not been systematically adopted across India’s disaster-prone districts.

There are examples of what inclusive, rights-based adaptation can look like. In Gujarat, a UNFPA-SEWA pilot integrated reproductive healthcare with livelihood support, helping women gain both economic and bodily agency. Research shows that clean energy technologies like biogas stoves have reduced indoor air pollution and lowered the health risks associated with cooking over open flames. In flood-prone regions of Assam and Gujarat, disaster-resilient toilets have helped preserve women’s privacy and sanitation during crises. These are not just programmes — they are low-cost solutions that can be scaled nationally — the kind of intersectional climate response India urgently needs.

But scattered initiatives are not enough. If India is to face its climate future with equity and dignity, reproductive health must be viewed as foundational to resilience — not a dispensable afterthought. This means ensuring access to contraception, maternal care, menstrual hygiene, and adolescent-friendly services even during emergencies and displacement. It also means using a gender lens while designing climate-resilient health systems, training frontline workers to deliver SRHR services during crises, and ensuring that women, girls, and LGBTQIA+ individuals are at the centre of climate decision-making.

As India faces yet another summer of extremes, we must ask: resilience for whom? A climate strategy that ignores the body — and the rights attached to it — cannot protect those who are most exposed. India’s climate response is failing women, and until that changes it will fail all of us.

(Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director, and Alok Vajpeyi, Lead - Core Grants & Knowledge Management, Population Foundation of India. X: @Letstransform and @alokvajpeyi.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the authors' own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.