Bengaluru Heat Collective launched: The Hindu update
The Bengaluru Heat Collective, a platform initiated by 11 organisations comprising citizens, academia, civil society, and practitioners to advance coordinated action on the rising urban
The Bengaluru Heat Collective, a platform initiated by 11 organisations comprising citizens, academia, civil society, and practitioners to advance coordinated action on the rising urban heat, was launched on Wednesday. The Bengaluru Heat Collective members include: ARTPARK, Bengaluru Sustainability Forum, C40 Cities, CSTEP, Hasiru Dala, HeatWatch, Jan Sahas, KHPT, NIMHANS, Socratus, and WRI India. The Collective will focus on four priority areas: understanding heat and its spatial dimensions to inform policy and investment, enabling infrastructure interventions, strengthening relief and resilience measures for vulnerable communities, and advancing ward-level microplanning. It will also focus on measures such as heat-risk mapping, heat-health monitoring, strengthening health systems and community response early warning systems, cooling shelters, shade and hydration infrastructure, worker protections, climate-responsive buildings, and blue-green infrastructure.
Pommala Sunil Kumar, Commissioner of Bengaluru’s North City Corporation, said that with the formation of the Collective, the city has a unique opportunity to act early before heat becomes a full-blown urban crisis. “Building long-term heat resilience will require coordinated action across health, labour, planning, water, energy, transport, disaster management, and community systems. We have already planned several tangible interventions, including albedo coating demonstrations on Bengaluru North City Corporation buildings. Of the ₹5 crore allocated for heat resilience by the Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA pilot), ₹1 crore is dedicated to protecting our most vulnerable populations through measures such as safety gear and neck fans for thousands of outdoor informal workers,” he said. Most vulnerable At the event where the Collective was launched, there was also a panel discussion with an Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) worker, a domestic worker, a construction worker, and a waste picker who spoke about how the extreme heat conditions in the city have been affecting their work and their overall health.
Usha Rani, an ASHA worker in Gottigere, said that extreme heat has become a community health issue, affecting the elderly, young children, pregnant women, and people living with chronic illness. She said that long working hours and limited access to toilets were also taking a toll on their health. “I walk about five kms under the sun, travel in crowded buses and work on the terrace during the hottest part of the day. By the time I reach home, I often have a headache and feel completely exhausted,” said Pushpa, a domestic worker from Ragigudda Mohammed Ibrahim, a construction worker from Devanahalli, said that he is primarily a farmer. However, due to irregular rainfall, his family stopped farming, and he came to the city to work as a construction worker.
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