If you didn’t feel it before it made the news, you are obviously vacationing in a land far away. In a tropical country like ours, sweltering heat and humidity are not unexpected. This summer went a step further- though not for the first time. The heat wave of 2003 had clasped the south claiming a staggering number of lives. This year, the heat is just as strong and the numbers as scary. There is more awareness, but not quite enough. The number of people succumbing stand testimony to this fact. Around 2,000 deaths have occurred this summer throughout India, and not surprisingly, the majority of it is in the south.
Heat and its cruel ways are not given proper attention till they start claiming lives. The actual number could be higher, given the disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable. Many people have a misguided perception of weather dangers and are unaware of the relative differences in weather threats to human life. Headache, sweating and feeling of weakness are usually recoverable, after all. Heat stroke, by clinical definition, occurs when the body reaches 104 degrees F. At 104, the body enters survival mode and stops perspiring. Only three degrees higher, at 107 degrees F, the body’s cells start to die. This causes the internal organs to begin failing. Death can occur soon after. It is as dangerous as it sounds.
Water is our gateway to health, especially during these times. Drink even when you’re not thirsty. Wearing loose-fitted and light-coloured clothes definitely helps. Use sunscreen and when somebody advises you not to leave home while the sun is up, give in.
The heat wave has disrupted life in both private and public spaces. It’s too hot inside the house and it’s too hot outside too. To pace through the distance between two cool spots has become a challenge. But our fears of sunstroke are negligibly small compared to the realities outside closeted AC rooms. The adversity faced by inhabitants of tin-roofed shelters, beggars and the homeless is catastrophic. Most victims are children and women.
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana together have one of the highest concentrations of the poor in India, with almost 12 million, or 15 per cent of the states’ population, living below the government-designated poverty line. These people, especially peasants, rickshaw pullers and daily wage laborers, as well as street hawkers, beggars and homeless laborers, are all forced to work outside, and consequently have become the main victims of the heat. Sadly, a day off during summer is nothing short of luxury for their kind. Every hour is as much a danger as a saving.
The health services have the most important role to play during a heat wave. There is a massive increase in the inflow of heat stroke patients, overcrowding the hospitals. Almost 70% of heat-related deaths occur in the age groups of 65 and older.
There are other issues that are difficult to solve. The use of electrical energy vastly rises and the demands for power usually exceed the capacity of local power plants. The ‘rolling blackouts’ help to sustain power, but only add to the miseries. A better system that encourages the right way of life and function during heat waves needs to be in place.
The only solace is that precautionary measures are not too difficult and the treatment of mild cases is simple too. Water is our gateway to health, especially during these times. Drink even when you’re not thirsty. Wearing loose-fitted and light-coloured clothes definitely helps. Use sunscreen and when somebody advises you not to leave home while the sun is up, give in. These still remains a kind of opulence for some, mostly the people who fall prey to the heat. A strong and emergency civil defence programme should be chalked out to support outdoor wage workers. A voluntary system of provision of water (and sometimes buttermilk) to travelers and beggars is a comfort beyond words. The perils can be combated if we stand together to spread consciousness. In the meanwhile, the next time you say ‘the heat is literally killing me’, remember it is a sad reality for some.
