Study shows impact of climate hazards
Speaking on the sidelines of the WomenLift Health Global Conference 2024 at Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, in April earlier this year, Ms. Swaminathan said, “In our scoping study we realised that up to 70% of Indian districts are at very high risk of oods, droughts, and cyclones. Women and children’s under-nutrition, teenage pregnancy and domestic violence indicators in these hotspots are also very stark.”
Overall, 183 districts were vulnerable to hydrometeorological disasters such as cyclones and oods, while 349 districts witnessed drought. The study was able to generate certain spatial hotspots where high exposure to hydro-met hazards such as oods, cyclones and droughts signi cantly coexists with a higher prevalence of poor health variables such as underweight women and child marriage.
‘Need immediate attention’
In northern areas of Bihar and Gujarat, the geospatial maps show hotspots where exposure to drought, ood, and cyclone co-exist with stunting and underweight children. In terms of women’s nutritional indicators too, these States need immediate attention, the study says. The northern parts of both States are ood-prone areas battered by heavy rainfall.
The study also points out that the northern plains, including parts of Uttar Pradesh, have hotspots for stunting, while parts of north Maharashtra and south Madhya Pradesh are hotspots for underweight children.
“Also, it should be noted that southern India and parts of coastal belts in Odisha have high exposure scores to hydro-met hazards but perform better in terms of child stunting and underweight, highlighting the role of stronger health systems,” the study points out.
Vulnerability to heatwaves
The document submitted to the Ministry states that the study’s limitations include reliance on secondary data sources, with limited empirical insights into the health aspects of women aected by climate change.
The recommendation to the Ministry also states that there is a key gap in evidence, in order to understand dierential factors behind children’s vulnerability to heatwaves and develop a systematic method to measure children’s exposure to heatwaves, and relatively less research attention has been paid to this area of inquiry, particularly in India.
“Excess deaths due to heat are not recognised and every State and city should make a heat action plan to tackle the eects of heatwaves. There should be accountability for who is responsible for co-ordination, who will nance, how will messages be disseminated. It is a multi-sectoral effort,” Ms. Swaminathan said.