Heat action plans must include smaller towns: India’s heat-health policies are overlooking a growing part of the country’s urban population: residents of Nagar Panchayats, the statutory bodies that govern settlements transitioning from rural to urban areas. These towns face rising heat exposure but often lack the administrative capacity, local data and health infrastructure needed to respond.
The stakes are substantial. A multi-city study of mortality in 10 Indian municipal corporations found that two consecutive days of extreme heat were associated with a 14.7% increase in daily deaths. Research by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) has also found that informal outdoor workers in India lose about 24 working days a year to heat, with corresponding losses in income. For smaller towns, where livelihoods, housing and access to public services are changing together, these pressures can be particularly difficult to manage.
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Governments have begun to strengthen urban heat preparedness. Following Ahmedabad’s pioneering Heat Action Plan, 64 cities had developed such plans by July 2026, according to the Union government. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has also launched the Building Heat Resilient Cities programme under AMRUT 2.0, a pilot covering 12 cities to improve heat assessment and integrate mitigation into urban planning.
Yet these initiatives leave a critical question: how will India prepare settlements that are becoming urban but lack the institutions and resources of larger cities? Nagar Panchayats need a more explicit place in the country’s heat-health response.
Why transitional towns face a distinct heat risk
India’s urban growth increasingly extends beyond established cities. Villages are developing into smaller settlements with denser populations, rising revenues and a greater share of non-agricultural employment. Article 243Q of the Constitution provides for a Nagar Panchayat in a “transitional area”, defined as an area moving from rural to urban status. State governments determine the criteria used to classify these areas, however, producing considerable variation in how transitional settlements are identified.
Despite this variation, Nagar Panchayats account for a substantial share of India’s urban local bodies. An assessment prepared by ICRIER for the Fifteenth Finance Commission found that, in 2019, they constituted 44% of the three categories of urban local bodies (ULBs) and accounted for 10.3% of their combined population. These figures may understate the extent of transition because settlements are not classified uniformly across states.
Research on urban heat also points to growing risks beyond the largest cities. A study examining 85 cities over 2003–23 found that urbanisation-related changes were associated with increased heat stress, although the intensity varied by city type. It warned that heat stress in smaller cities could intensify as population density and unplanned vertical development increase. The findings do not establish the precise level of risk in Nagar Panchayats, but they underline why smaller, rapidly changing settlements need closer attention.
Their governing institutions face significant constraints. Nagar Panchayats operate within the urban governance framework, yet their authority over municipal functions is shaped by state laws and administrative arrangements. Their fiscal capacity is often limited as well. Smaller ULBs tend to depend more heavily on transfers from state and central governments, leaving them with less discretion to fund emerging priorities such as heat preparedness. As heat exposure rises, local authorities may have limited control over the decisions and resources required to address it.
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Four gaps in heat-health management
Detecting heat-health risks. Nagar Panchayats often depend on weather alerts issued at district level by the India Meteorological Department and the District Disaster Management Authority. These alerts are essential, but may not capture differences in local exposure, including the effects of housing, land cover and working conditions. Health surveillance has similar limitations.
The National Heat-Related Illness and Death Surveillance system recorded an average reporting rate of 55% among 47,477 reporting units at public health facilities from March to July 2024. This is a national reporting figure, not a Nagar Panchayat-specific measure, but it illustrates the gaps that can limit local assessments. Without more granular weather and health data, local authorities cannot reliably identify which neighbourhoods and population groups need the most urgent attention.
Planning the response. Heat Action Plans are generally developed at state, district or larger-city level, with smaller ULBs expected to implement relevant measures. This arrangement can leave Nagar Panchayats responsible for action without adequate staff, infrastructure or funding. The National Disaster Management Authority’s heat-wave guidelines call for vulnerability assessments and mitigation measures tailored to local conditions. Applying that principle requires attention to how settlement patterns, building design, access to water and local livelihoods shape heat exposure in transitional towns. A plan designed for a large city may not address those conditions adequately.
Communicating warnings. Heat advisories are useful only if residents receive and understand them in time to act. Article 243S of the Constitution requires Ward Committees in municipalities with a population of three lakh or more, while allowing states to establish additional committees. Smaller ULBs may lack comparable institutional arrangements for community-level outreach. Nagar Panchayats therefore need reliable ways to pass warnings through frontline workers and local institutions to markets, schools and households, including people who have limited access to digital communication.
Treating heat-related illness. Urban governance does not automatically guarantee access to urban health services. Under the 2013 National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) guidelines, the urban health programme focused on urban populations of 50,000 and above. The Draft NUHM Framework 2023 proposes extending coverage to urban areas with populations of at least 5,000, but this remains a draft framework and would still exclude smaller settlements if the threshold were applied as proposed.
Some Nagar Panchayats consequently rely on rural health services that may not be organised around the needs of a growing urban population. They may lack appropriate arrangements for urban community health workers, Mahila Arogya Samitis and Urban Primary Health Centres. During a heatwave, these gaps can impede early identification of illness, outreach to vulnerable residents and referrals to facilities equipped to treat heatstroke.
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A differentiated approach for Nagar Panchayats
India does not need to create a separate heat-governance system for every transitional town. It needs to adapt existing plans, public health programmes and administrative arrangements so that Nagar Panchayats can use them effectively.
- Give Nagar Panchayats a defined place in district Heat Action Plans. State governments should require every heat-vulnerable district to include a dedicated section on Nagar Panchayats in its district plan. This should draw on local vulnerability assessments, specify how health facilities will report heat-related illness, and identify officials responsible for coordination between the Nagar Panchayat and district health system. Planning for smaller settlements before development pressures intensify could also reduce the cost of addressing heat risks later.
- Establish heat-health coordination before summer. State health and urban development departments, working with State Disaster Management Authorities, should designate a coordination mechanism for each Nagar Panchayat. It should identify who is responsible for health surveillance, water provision, urban infrastructure, vector control and emergency response. The National Disaster Management Plan already provides a basis for inter-departmental coordination; the priority is to make these arrangements operational before a heatwave occurs.
- Ensure that municipal status leads to an appropriate urban-health pathway. The proposed expansion under the Draft NUHM Framework 2023 is a useful starting point, but a population threshold alone could leave the smallest Nagar Panchayats outside the urban health system. The Union and state governments should establish a clear pathway through which settlements governed as urban local bodies can access appropriate health planning, frontline workers, community platforms, referral services and heat-related illness surveillance. Funding and staffing arrangements will need to reflect differences in population and local capacity.
- Include Nagar Panchayats in climate-health plans and funding decisions. The National Programme on Climate Change and Human Health should ensure that State Action Plans on Climate Change and Human Health account for the specific risks and institutional constraints of these settlements. State and district authorities should translate those priorities into implementable plans, identifying responsible departments, delivery arrangements and funding sources. Without this link between planning and finance, recognition of heat risk is unlikely to translate into effective local action.
India’s urban transition is producing settlements that fall between the assumptions of rural and urban service systems. Nagar Panchayats cannot be expected to manage rising heat risks through municipal responsibilities alone when the data, health services and funding they need remain organised elsewhere. Giving these towns a defined role in heat planning and public health provision would bring the country’s heat response closer to the people already experiencing its costs.
The authors work with Collective Good Foundation.