Delhi Slum Residents Log Heat Survival in Diaries
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- 40 households in Sunder Nagri, a north-east Delhi slum, are documenting daily heat-survival routines in 'garmi khata' (heat registries), a project designed with Greenpeace India researchers to move beyond meteorological data toward community testimony.
- Gulshan, a 39-year-old mother of four, washes floors and dampens clothes before sleep; her children have developed rashes and one has a skin infection from prolonged contact with the wet fabric, she writes in her diary.
- Arshi, 19, who earns about 150 rupees (£1.17) a day making decorative tassels for trucks, logs that she visits her Delhi University library just to sit in the air conditioning before returning to a home where the 'feels-like' temperature reaches 36.3°C (97°F) at 84.6% humidity.
- Raja, a 21-year-old street vendor, endures 45°C summer temperatures selling vegetables from a pushcart; community heat mapping found ground-level temperatures on his street exceed 54°C (129°F), and shrinking foot traffic has cut his income.
- India Today satellite analysis found land-surface temperatures of nearly 44°C in Delhi's south-west Mahipalpur district versus about 37°C in the upscale, leafy suburb of Vasant Kunj — just 2 miles apart — illustrating stark intra-city heat inequality.
- On 4 August, India's government added heatwaves to the list of nationally notified disasters, enabling states to access emergency relief funds; diarists and researchers hope the funds will finally reach local, community-guided heat resilience.
- The diaries have been submitted to India's National Human Rights Commission and will be shared with ministries and MPs, with organizers also developing them into evidence for climate-related lawsuits under the Supreme Court's 2024 ruling that protection from the climate crisis forms part of the right to life.
Why it matters: For the 40 households participating, the registries convert lived suffering — rashes, lost income, sleepless nights — into evidence that Indian cities lack the administrative capacity to deliver localized heat resilience, as urban planner Aravind Unni notes. With heatwaves now a nationally notified disaster since 4 August, diarists are betting that community testimony, not just meteorological data, will unlock targeted relief for the neighborhoods that suffer most.
Ask SkimNews
