According to an article in Down to Earth, published in May 2026, there is an imminent need to recognise heat as a gendered climate disaster. Studies show that “women’s bodies respond differently to heat stress at a physiological level. Hormonal fluctuations, body composition, and metabolic rates all affect thermoregulation, making women more susceptible to dehydration, fatigue, and heat-related illness. Pregnant women face even greater risks… heat waves add to the challenges faced by already fragile maternal health systems”.

Heat-related discussions and their links with women’s health remain marginal in discussions around climate change; the idea that heat poses a special danger to women's bodies has a surprisingly long history in India. However, most colonial environmental anxieties regarding heat and women’s bodies centred less on women themselves than on their reproductive capacity.

Over two centuries ago, tropical medicine and colonial administration brought the debilitating effects of heat into focus in public health discussions. Heat was rendered into a cause and a diagnosis as early as the 18th century when the East India Company encountered severe adversities, either because the sultry tropical climate itself was a survival challenge for the unacclamatised European bodies or due to health threats ranging from heat apoplexies to more deadly tropical diseases like...

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