Research Study by WOTR

Key Points of this Study:

1. The study covered five low-income sites in South Asia, two sites (Yavatmal and Jalna) from Maharashtra, and three are Delhi (India), Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Faisalabad (Pakistan).

2. For the study, temperature was measured inside different kinds of low-income homes in Delhi, Dhaka and Faisalabad and in Maharashtra, as well as outdoor temperature and humidity. Agency also surveyed the household on coping measures and health effects.

3. In Delhi, tin-roof homes were found to be almost 20C warmer than outdoors. The findings highlight the vulnerability of women, the elderly and children who spend a lot of time indoors, especially in rural areas with erratic electricity and drinking water.

4. The dataset for the Yavatmal and Jalna districts reveals that the temperature inside tin-roofed houses was 3-40C higher compared to the houses that use cement and concrete.

5. People are often told to stay indoors in a heatwave, but that can actually be worse, as per Mr Premsagar Tasgaonkar, the study’s lead author.

6. Unsurprisingly, tin roof homes were found to be the hottest in the afternoon.

7. As per Mr Tasgaonkar, with rising global temperatures, even those areas that have not been hot zones need to be prepared. The Government should consider setting up community shelters.

8. As per Chandni Singh, a climate researcher with the Indian Institute of Human Settlements and an IPCC lead author, the study published in Nature Scientific Data, “fills a key gap on understanding how heat is mediating everyday life, indoors and outdoors.”