By Vishal Pathak, AIDMI, India, and Professor Nibedita S. Ray-Bennett, Avoidable Deaths Network, UK

Extreme heat is rapidly emerging as one of the most serious climate risks affecting communities across South Asia. Rising temperatures, longer heatwaves, and expanding urban heat islands are increasing the health and livelihood risks faced by millions of people. Yet extreme heat is also one of the most predictable climate hazards, and therefore the deaths associated with it should not be considered inevitable. Extreme heat deaths are largely avoidable when early warnings are linked with timely action, social protection, and practical cooling measures.

Extreme heat is often described as a slow-onset disaster. Unlike earthquakes or cyclones, heatwaves build gradually and occur seasonally, allowing time for preparation and preventive measures. Meteorological services in many countries now provide several days of advance warning for extreme heat conditions. The real challenge therefore lies not in forecasting heat, but in ensuring that these forecasts trigger early actions that protect vulnerable populations.

This shift—from reacting after a crisis to preventing harm before temperatures peak—is at the centre of the Avoidable Deaths Network’s (ADN) public engagement global campaign to reduce avoidable deaths from climate-related disasters. Networks such as the ADN promote the idea that many disaster-related deaths are avoidable through better preparedness, early warning, accountable governance, and access to medical treatment. As a member of ADN, the AIDMI contributes to campaigns that highlight extreme heat as one of the climate risks where prevention is both possible and urgent.

Heat Risk and the World of Work

Extreme heat disproportionately affects people whose livelihoods depend on working outdoors or in poorly ventilated environments. Street businesses, transport workers, construction labourers, waste pickers, and small business operators often have no option but to continue working in high temperatures. In India, around 75 percent of the workforce depends on heat-exposed labour (World Bank, insert the year of publication). At the same time, rising temperatures are expected to lead to the loss of the equivalent of 34 million full-time jobs in India by 2030 due to heat stress (ILO, insert the year of publication).

Women workers face additional challenges. Approximately 82 percent of working women in India are employed in the informal sector, where occupational safety measures and social protection are often limited (ILO, year of publication). These workers frequently operate from small shops, home-based enterprises, or street-side workplaces that lack adequate ventilation or cooling.

For these groups, extreme heat is not simply a weather condition—it is a daily livelihood risk that affects productivity, income, and health.

Lessons from AIDMI’s Work with Small Businesses

Over the past several years, AIDMI has worked with small businesses and workers across Indian cities to understand how extreme heat affects livelihoods and what practical solutions can reduce risk. This work has generated several lessons.

First, small businesses are often the first to experience the economic impacts of extreme heat, as customers avoid markets during peak temperatures and workers struggle to maintain productivity. Second, many small enterprises already experiment with low-cost cooling measures, such as temporary shade structures, reflective roofing materials, improved ventilation, or adjusting working hours to avoid the hottest parts of the day.

These experiences show that practical, locally grounded solutions can significantly reduce heat risks when supported by policy and community awareness. Documenting such measures also helps make visible the everyday challenges faced by workers who often remain outside formal labour protection systems.

AIDMI’s field engagement with small businesses, transport workers, and small shop owners demonstrates that protecting livelihoods is a central component of building heat resilience.

From Weather to Governance

Understanding extreme heat as an avoidable risk requires a shift in thinking. Heatwaves are often treated as natural events that communities must endure. However, when deaths occur during predictable heat events, they often reflect gaps in planning, preparedness, and governance, including access to timely medical treatment within the golden hour of saving a life.

Many countries already possess strong meteorological forecasting capacity. Heat alerts can often be issued several days in advance, providing valuable time for preventive measures. What is often missing is the systematic translation of these warnings into early actions at local and community levels.

Examples of such early actions include adjusting working hours for outdoor labour, opening cooling spaces, ensuring access to safe drinking water, strengthening public communication on heat risks, and activating local health systems to support vulnerable populations. When such measures are implemented in a timely and coordinated way, the risks associated with extreme heat can be significantly reduced.

Local Action: The Role of Ahmedabad

The city of Ahmedabad has been recognised globally for its efforts to address extreme heat through the Ahmedabad Heat Action Plan, implemented by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). The plan combines early warning systems, public awareness campaigns, and coordinated institutional response.

AIDMI appreciates the leadership shown by AMC in advancing heat preparedness and continues to support local implementation through community engagement and outreach. Most recently, engagement and outreach activities have been organised through ADN’s Ahmedabad Case Station for Avoidable Deaths model. This is a place‑based and issue‑focused approach to health promotion, health education, and risk reduction. It engages high‑risk and vulnerable populations through outreach events held every six months, with the aim of empowering communities and building their capacity to mitigate heat‑related risks.

Working with workers’ groups, small businesses, and neighbourhood communities, AIDMI helps translate India Meteorological Department (IMD) heat alerts into practical guidance for those most at risk.

This includes sharing heat safety messages, promoting workplace adaptations, and encouraging early protective actions before temperatures peak. Such local-level engagement demonstrates how early warning information can be converted into life-saving early action.

Equity at the Centre of Heat Action

Extreme heat does not affect all people equally. Vulnerability is shaped by income, occupation, housing conditions, and access to services. People living in crowded neighbourhoods with limited ventilation or green spaces are particularly vulnerable. Similarly, elderly persons, migrant workers, and those with pre-existing health conditions face higher risks during heatwaves.

Effective heat action therefore requires an equity-centred approach. Protection measures must reach those who are most exposed to heat risks, especially small businesses that often remain outside formal safety systems.

Heat Action Plans adopted by several cities in India have already demonstrated the value of coordinated approaches that combine early warning, public awareness, and institutional preparedness. Strengthening and expanding such approaches can significantly reduce the human impacts of extreme heat.

From Awareness to Early Action

In recent years, awareness about extreme heat risks has increased significantly. However, awareness alone is not sufficient. The next phase of action must focus on ensuring that heat forecasts trigger routine early actions across institutions and communities.

This includes integrating heat alerts into municipal planning, establishing automatic local response protocols, and ensuring that frontline workers—such as transport operators, street businesses, and small entrepreneurs—receive practical guidance and support.

Financing also plays an important role. Small-scale cooling solutions—such as shade structures, improved roofing materials, and community cooling spaces—can provide immediate protection for vulnerable groups when implemented at scale.

Preventing the Preventable

Extreme heat is predictable. The science is available. Early warnings exist. What remains is the consistent application of preventive measures that translate knowledge into action.

Recognising extreme heat deaths as avoidable changes the narrative. Instead of accepting heat-related fatalities as unavoidable tragedies, national and local authorities can focus on preventing them through preparedness, coordination, and inclusive planning. Furthermore, public engagement and outreach model such as the Ahmedabad Case Station for Avoidable Heat Deaths are low-cost community-led solutions that has the potential to empower communities at/high risks.

Supporting local innovations such as this, and prioritising protection for vulnerable workers and communities, it is possible to reduce heat-related deaths from rising temperatures.

In a warming world, the goal is clear: No one should die from extreme heat when the risk is known, and the solutions are within reach.

(The article is based on the presentation and discussion at the panel – “Campaigning to Reduce Avoidable Deaths in a Climate-Challenged World” that was organised by Avoidable Deaths Network at HNPW2026.)