India has no dedicated national budget for heat waves. Despite rising temperatures and warnings of a “Super El Niño,” the country still funds heat response through programs never built for it. A new report finds barely a tenth of relevant spending goes toward fighting heat directly.
The report, “Standing the Heat,” comes from Greenpeace India, the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) and the Budget Analysis and Research Centre (BARC) Trust. Researchers reviewed seven years of Union Budget data, from 2020-21 to 2026-27, tracking 130 schemes across 16 ministries. Only 27 directly target heat risk.
Direct heat spending made up just 9 to 11 percent of tracked allocations each year. The rest — 88 to 93 percent — flowed through broader programs never designed for heat.
In the 2026-27 budget, the government tracked Rs 8.57 lakh crore across the 130 schemes. About 10 percent could directly address heat risk.
Raman VR, executive director of CBGA, said the funding pattern erases accountability. “Heat is everyone’s problem but no one’s priority,” he said. Scattering money this thinly, he added, makes it impossible to pin responsibility on any single ministry.
No Plan for the Workers Most Exposed
The Ministry of Labour and Employment runs 13 heat-relevant schemes. None protects workers from heat stress on the job. India has no occupational heat-protection rule and no compensation fund for heat-related illness at work.
Mohit Valecha helps maintain the Heat Registry, a handwritten record of how extreme heat reshapes daily life in Delhi. “We can’t escape heat anymore,” he said, describing how heat has altered when people work, travel and rest. He wants the government to protect their health.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change runs India’s climate response but has no scheme built for heat. All eight of its heat-relevant schemes work only indirectly. In 2024-25, it spent Rs 788.99 crore of a Rs 1,737.74 crore allocation — 45 percent.
The Health Ministry fares worse. Its disaster-preparedness scheme spent just Rs 14.92 crore of a Rs 94 crore budget that year, a 15.9 percent utilization rate.
Research Funding Disappears
The Ministry of Science and Technology received zero allocation for both of its heat-relevant schemes starting in 2025-26. Researchers warn this could choke early-warning innovation just as heatwave patterns grow harder to predict.
Agriculture tells a similar story. The ministry manages 40 heat-relevant schemes, more than any other, but only three count as direct. Most money flows into crop insurance, not prevention, even though agriculture employs nearly half of India’s population.
One scheme disappeared entirely. The Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana–National Urban Livelihood Mission once funded support for street vendors and waste pickers. Its budget fell from Rs 816 crore in 2020-21 to zero by 2025-26.
A Push for a National Heat Disaster Fund
The report urges India to classify heatwaves as a disaster under the Disaster Management Act, as the 16th Finance Commission has recommended. That would unlock state and national disaster funds. Currently only 11 states recognize heatwaves as a disaster on their own.
Nesar Ahmad, director of BARC Trust, said heatwaves “must be designated as a nationally notified disaster.” He pointed to a separate problem: ministries budgeted money for heat schemes in 2024-25 but failed to spend much of it, exposing what he called implementation bottlenecks.
Aakiz Farooq, a Greenpeace India campaigner, tied the crisis to its source. “Heat is largely driven by historical and ongoing emissions,” he said, pointing to major fossil fuel producers and high-emitting economies. He wants governments to apply the polluter-pays principle and put existing public money to better use before the next heatwave hits.
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