Since 2019, the Government of Tamil Nadu has focused on extreme heat by evolving the Tamil Nadu Heat Action Plan. In 2024, Tamil Nadu’s State Planning Commission
released two reports titled ‘Beating The Heat-Tamil Nadu Heat Mitigation Strategy’ and the ‘Urban heat
island-hotspot analysis and mitigation strategies for Tamil Nadu’.
These reports highlighted the adverse ecological and economic consequences of heat stress and also proposed
recommendations on predicting heat waves earlier, increasing public awareness of how to respond to a heatwave,
preparing health systems to manage health conditions, increasing green cover, and improving research on the
subject.
However, these reports do not adequately address the situational nuances of
vulnerable communities, according to Vanessa Peter, the founder of Information and Resource Centre for
the Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC), an NGO.
The Tamil Nadu Heat Mitigation Strategy (2024) has identified various strategies to help street vendors, such as
heat shelters, provision of ice boxes to prevent spoilage, and access to safe drinking water, but it has not
addressed other aspects of heat that affect people like Sathya.
“There is no focus on the access to toilets. Access to safe drinking water and public toilets is equally
important, as women vendors point out that they do not drink adequate water because of the non-availability of
toilets near their vending spaces,” Ms. Peter says.
While Sathya is entitled to these benefits as a street vendor, members of her family who live in “homeless
situations” remain unaddressed in the policy.
“The policy does recognise differential impacts on children, the elderly, pregnant women, and persons with
disabilities” but not those living on the streets, says Ms. Peter.
Prakash’s professional setting exposes him to extreme discomfort. “The strategy document mentions the
Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (Tamil Nadu) Rules, 2022 that details the various measures that
employers must take to ensure workers’ health,” Ms. Peter adds. “The document also emphasises the need to include
provisions related to the
thermal comfort of workers in indoor and outdoor environments. But the case of Prakash, who works in a
private steelworking facility, reveals that there needs to be robust guidelines for private factories and
monitoring of the same.”
She also says the implementation of the strategy has been less than adequate due to a lack of coordination
between various departments responsible.
“The absence of specific guidelines highlighting the roles of the different departments is a challenge for
preparing and responding to heat emergencies for the urban homeless,” she says.
Ms. Peter also speaks about the mention of the temperature humidity index. For the vulnerable communities,
priority actions related to humidity are identified, including changing all asbestos roofs to safe and cool
roofing materials, especially focusing on low-income housing. Maintaining thermal comfort in all built
environments is prioritised through passive or active cooling techniques in building codes and regulation by urban
local bodies (ULBs).
Despite these identified strategies, Ms. Peter says that the designs of most of the houses built by the Tamil
Nadu Urban Habitat Board
do not have scope for ventilation.
“This strategy does not mention the existing Resilient Urban Design Framework of the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat
Development Board (2020) that has provisions for natural ventilation, daylight access and thermal comfort in the
design. The proposed suggestions in this framework have not been implemented in many of the housing projects.”
Chandrakant Lahariya, a practising physician in the Centre for Health: The Specialty Practice in New Delhi and an
expert in global health, recommends a more practicable approach.
“During heatwaves, local authorities carry out a lot of short-term measures such as advisories to drink more
water. However, to make that happen, municipalities and city authorities need to ensure the easy availability of
drinking water points, and the availability of ORS powder.”
Dr. Lahariya also suggests workplaces allow staggered work timings (wherever possible). Work can be closed during specified peak hours of the day, especially for those who
work in the informal sector, open spaces and in direct sun exposure.
“If policymakers and planners remember that a heatwave is an equity issue and that the approach has to be
people-centric, half of the task will be done,” he says.
Note: We calculated the heat index using the formula developed by the U.S. National Weather Service (NOAA),
which factors in air temperature and relative humidity. The IMD then experimentally classifies the resulting
temperature into four alert levels for human discomfort: (<35°C), (36-45°C), (46-55°C), and (>55°C).