By AIDMI Team, India

As Indian cities grapple with increasingly severe heatwaves, the urgency to build robust Heat Action Plans (HAPs) has never been greater. In this context, a promising innovation is the integration of the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) methodology into urban climate resilience planning. This approach not only enhances the effectiveness of HAPs but also ensures that the most vulnerable populations—women, the elderly, persons with disabilities, informal workers, small businesses, migrants, homeless and marginalised communities—are not left behind.

The GESI methodology experimented by All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI) in parts in its own work in Indian cities and reviewed for the SIDRRA project of Duryog Nivaran in South Asia, brings an inclusive lens to climate adaptation by recognising that extreme heat does not affect everyone equally. For instance, women working in open-air markets, construction labourers without access to shade, or elderly slum dwellers with no cooling options are at disproportionate risk. Traditional HAPs often fail to account for such social and economic vulnerabilities, limiting their impact and reach. GESI seeks to correct this by embedding equity into every stage of heat planning—from risk assessment and resource allocation to communication and relief strategies.

Several cities in India, including Ahmedabad, Pune, and Bhubaneswar, are now piloting GESI-informed HAPs in partnership with local governments, NGOs, and international agencies such as UNDP and the World Bank. These initiatives are grounded in community-level consultations and disaggregated data collection to identify vulnerable groups and map their specific heat-related risks. For example, in parts of Odisha, localised plans now include targeted early warning messages for women-headed households and provide cooling shelters accessible to persons with disabilities.

GESI-based HAPs also prioritise participatory governance, ensuring that women and marginalised groups, such as migrants, have a voice in the design and implementation of city-wide heat mitigation measures. Additionally, they recommend micro-level interventions—like shaded workspaces for street vendors, mobile water units in high-density informal settlements, and gender-segregated cooling centres—to address real-world barriers faced by underserved populations.

The broader implication of applying GESI to urban heat planning is transformative. It redefines resilience not as a uniform standard, but as a differentiated, people-centred process that acknowledges intersectional vulnerability. As climate change accelerates, India’s urban policymakers must embrace such inclusive frameworks to ensure that adaptation is equitable, sustainable, and just.

If successful, India’s GESI-informed heat resilience strategies could urgently become a blueprint for other climate-vulnerable nations, positioning inclusion not as a peripheral concern but as a core design principle in the age of planetary heat.