Urban heat is emerging as a chronic disaster across Indian cities. Examine the institutional architecture of Heat Action Plans and propose reforms.

Introduction:

The IMD recorded 536 heatwave days across India during summer 2024 — the highest in 14 years; the Centre for Policy Research (2023) finds only ~46% of Indian cities have a Heat Action Plan (HAP). NDMA released revised Guidelines on Heatwave Management in 2019, but heat remains unnotified under the disaster-relief list.

Institutional architecture:

The HAP architecture rests on IMD seasonal and short-range forecasts, State Disaster Management Departments, district administration, municipal cooling centres, water-supply augmentation, and ASHA-led community mobilisation. Ahmedabad pioneered India's first HAP in 2013 after the 2010 heat deaths, becoming a global model now replicated by 100+ Indian cities.

Persistent gaps:

Most HAPs lack dedicated funding, fine-grained vulnerability mapping, and accountability structures. Informal-sector workers — construction, street vending, gig delivery — are invisible to municipal interventions. The Telangana heat deaths of May 2015 demonstrated that workplace heat regulation under labour laws is underdeveloped, while Mission LiFE's behavioural component remains under-utilised.

Notification gap:

Heatwave is not among the 12 notified disasters under SDRF, so compensation, livelihood relief, and ex-gratia for heat deaths are discretionary. The DM (Amendment) Act 2024 created scope for an Urban Disaster Management Authority but no clear heat mandate; ISRO's TRISHNA mission promises urban heat-island mapping.

Way forward / Conclusion:

Notify heatwave under the DM Act 2005 SDRF list, bind HAPs to ULB budgets through 16th FC grants, mandate cool-roof retrofitting under PMAY-U 2.0, and pilot ESI/EPF heat-relief payouts for outdoor workers by 2027 under NDMA.