Nearly 92% of Indian Children Exposed to Extreme Heat, UN Report Warns

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NEW DELHI: Around 392 million children in India - nearly 92% of all children within the 0-18 age group are exposed to extreme heat, while a further 89 million children are exposed to heatwaves, according to a new UN global report that raises concern over growing vulnerability of infants and young children amid increasing frequency, duration and severity of heatwaves. Noting that the existing ‘Heat Action Plans’ are an important first step, UNICEF’s Children’s Climate Risk Report 2026 data highlights the scale of the challenge. UNICEF points out that while India is taking forward looking steps to prepare city and district heat action plans, in most cases the plans generally do not focus on child-specific and age-differentiated measures. “Heat Action Plans should include schools, anganwadis, nighttime heat and district-level child vulnerability mapping for targeted interventions,” UNICEF recommends. The challenge is evident as India ‘s ‘hazard exposure score’ stands at 9.21 on a scale of 0-10. Among neighbours only Pakistan (9.44) and Bangladesh (9.38) have even higher hazard exposure scores. China too has a high score at 8.28 reflecting the vulnerability. Afghanistan has a score of 6.25. Neighbours with a score of less than 5 include Sri Lanka 4.99 followed by Nepal 3.79 and Bhutan (2.11). While UK has a score of 4.27 both Japan and USA have score above 5 at 5.61 and 6.57 respectively. The report also assigns scores to countries across categories of hazards. India’s vulnerability score with regards to coastal floods is low at 1.98 followed by sand and dust storms at 2.38, fire (3.11), heatwave (3.6), riverine flood (5.81) and tropical storms (6.36). However, the scores worsen to worrisome levels with regards to drought (8.84), air pollution (9.94) and extreme heat (10). Globally, the data shows that nearly half of the world’s children – or 1.1 billion – are now exposed to at least three overlapping climate hazards, threatening their health, education, and survival. Almost every child in the world faces at least one climate hazard. Unsurprisingly, countries with large child populations consistently appear at the top of the absolute exposure lists. The report states that in countries with massive child and youth populations – such as Bangladesh, India, Nigeria and Pakistan – even if in some cases the relative percentage of children exposed to multiple climate hazards is low, the absolute number exposed is still high. Drought, extreme heat, and heatwaves are the most widespread combination of climate hazards, with over 296 million children living in areas exposed to all three conditions, according to the findings. The second most common combination – drought, extreme heat, and tropical storms – leaves more than 115 million children worldwide exposed to these overlapping threats. Another worrisome finding points towards rising air pollution. Globally, almost all children, 2.3 billion, live in areas with unhealthy air. Air pollution was the second leading risk factor for death among children under age five in 2023, after malnutrition. Countries with the highest number of children exposed to ambient air pollution include those that are highly populated and have rapidly developing economies, such as India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan. For over 100 countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lesotho, Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal and Senegal almost all children are exposed to ambient air pollution above the established WHO guidelines of PM2. 5 > 5 µg/m³ (micrograms per cubic metre of air). To protect children’s rights from climate threats and adapt to growing environmental changes UNICEF has called for reducing emissions and measures for urgent phasing-out of fossil fuels and a just transition towards renewable energy.