The Hidden Cost of Climate Change: Rising Infant Mortality in India

An alarming trend is emerging in India, linking two seemingly distant crises: climate change and infant mortality. As extreme weather events become more frequent and unpredictable due to global warming, vulnerable communities in India are paying a tragic price — with their infants' lives.

Recent studies have shown a disturbing correlation between rising temperatures and increased infant mortality rates in India. For example, Banerjee and Maharaj (2020) found that two children die as infants out of 1000 births due to high temperatures during pregnancy in rural India. Similarly, Zhang et al. (2024) opine that rising temperature affects a child’s health. The nation's fragile healthcare infrastructure is struggling to cope with the combined burden of climate-induced health impacts and its already high rates of neonatal deaths.

?Climate Change: A Silent Killer

Climate change has intensified India’s weather patterns, resulting in longer heatwaves, erratic monsoons, and severe floods. These extreme conditions pose significant risks for infants, particularly those who are sensitive to environmental stressors. Research published in the journal Lancet Planetary Health found that a 1°C rise in temperature could lead to up to 10% increase in infant mortality in India, especially in poorer regions where access to healthcare and resources is limited.

Rising temperatures can exacerbate dehydration, malnutrition, and heat-related illnesses among infants, particularly in rural areas where families often lack air conditioning, clean water, or reliable access to healthcare. Infants are at a heightened risk of heat exhaustion during heatwaves, which can quickly escalate into life-threatening conditions if not promptly treated.

Monsoons and the Spread of Disease

The erratic monsoon seasons also play a role in increasing infant mortality rates. Flooding due to heavy rains contaminates drinking water supplies, leading to the spread of waterborne diseases such as diarrhea and cholera. These infections can be deadly for infants with weaker immune systems. For example, Gosh (2023), diarrhea alone accounts for nearly 7.3% of all deaths among children under the age of five in India.

Moreover, the post-monsoon season brings a surge in vector-borne diseases like malaria and dengue fever. Infants, especially those in slum areas, are at a higher risk of being bitten by mosquitoes that breed in stagnant water left behind by floods. Inadequate public health infrastructure, combined with the increasing frequency of these disease outbreaks, creates a perfect storm that disproportionately impacts newborns and young children.

Rural Communities: The Hardest Hit

The brunt of climate change is borne by India’s poorest communities, particularly in rural areas where healthcare facilities are sparse and often ill-equipped to handle emergencies. In places like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh—states with some of the highest rates of infant mortality in the country—families face compounded challenges of poverty, malnutrition, and, now, climate change.

?In these regions, families who rely on agriculture are seeing their livelihoods threatened by irregular rainfall patterns and droughts, pushing them further into poverty. As families struggle to meet their basic needs, the health of infants becomes a secondary concern. Many newborns are already malnourished, and the added impact of climate-induced food scarcity further endangers their lives.

?Urban Areas Not Immune

While rural areas face the most direct impacts, urban centers are not spared from the effects of climate change. Overcrowded slums in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkata are becoming hotspots for climate-related health crises. Rising temperatures in these densely populated areas exacerbate the “urban heat island” effect, making it even harder for infants to survive.

?In these slums, access to clean water, sanitation, and healthcare is often limited. Families living in cramped, poorly ventilated spaces struggle to keep their infants cool during heatwaves. Public hospitals are often overwhelmed, leaving vulnerable newborns without the timely medical attention they need.

?Government Response: A Call for Action

?Recognizing the threat, the Indian government has taken steps to mitigate climate change's impacts on public health. Initiatives such as the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) in 2008 and the launch of heat action plans in cities like Ahmedabad and Nagpur aim to protect vulnerable populations. However, experts argue that these measures are insufficient to address the growing health crisis, especially among infants. Integrating a climate resilience system into rural India’s healthcare infrastructure is necessary. Further, we need targeted programs to improve maternal and child healthcare, ensure access to clean water, and strengthen disease surveillance systems. For example, the Climate-Related Disease Surveillance Programme (CRDSP) aims to improve health outcomes by focusing on critical areas such as maternal and child health and climate-related diseases.

The link between climate change and infant mortality in rural India is a stark reminder of how interconnected our world has become. While the country is progressing in areas like renewable energy and climate policy, the human cost of inaction is becoming harder to ignore. If India is to safeguard the health and future of its youngest citizens, it must act swiftly to address the growing impact of climate change on public health. The fate of its children—and, indeed, the nation’s future—hangs in the balance.

?Reference:

Banerjee, R., & Maharaj, R. (2020). Heat, infant mortality, and adaptation: Evidence from India.?Journal of Development Economics,?143, 102378.

Ghosh, K., Chakraborty, A. S., & SenGupta, S. (2023). Identifying spatial clustering of diarrhoea among children under 5 years across 707 districts in India: a cross sectional study.?BMC pediatrics,?23(1), 272.

Zhang, A. Y., Bennett, M. B., Martin, S., & Grow, H. M. (2024). Climate Change and Heat: Challenges for Child Health Outcomes and Inequities.?Current Pediatrics Reports, 1-11.