In a disconcerting new report, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has revealed that almost every child in India is exposed to at least one climate hazard, while a whopping 97 per cent face two or more overlapping risks from climate change. On top of this, over 234 million children, or about 55 per cent of the country’s child population, confront at least three climate threats simultaneously. These alarming findings of UNICEF’s Children’s Climate Risk Report 2026 highlight how a full-blown humanitarian crisis induced by climate change is unfolding in plain sight.
While policymakers often discuss climate change in absolute terms such as rising temperatures and ‘net-zero’ emissions targets, the real face of climate change in India is seen in events such as children being unable to attend schools because of heatwaves or suffering from malnutrition as rain scarcity has destroyed crops, or falling ill because floods have contaminated their drinking water. What is especially striking is the scale of the overlap. Drought, extreme heat, floods and tropical storms have become interconnected disasters that strike communities in quick succession, leaving little time for response. More than 158 million children face the combined threat of drought and extreme heat, while another 84 million are simultaneously vulnerable to drought, heat and tropical storms, the report noted.
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This unprecedented convergence of hazards exposes a major flaw in India’s approach to climate policy. The government continues to treat disasters as episodic emergencies rather than as a long-term structural crisis. Apart from India’s geographic vulnerability to extreme weather events, decades of unplanned urbanisation, sacrificing green cover for industries and mining purposes, relentless groundwater extraction, pollution and lax environmental governance have magnified environmental problems. The saddest part of this crisis is that children, who have contributed the least to the problem, are being forced to bear the heaviest brunt.
Last year alone, climate-related disruptions affected nearly 55 million students in India, the highest in the world. Heatwaves have become severe enough to force school closures across several states, including Odisha, creating a new form of educational inequality. Children from affluent families may have access to air-conditioned homes and schools, online classes and healthcare, while millions of poor children have none of these. The report also highlights the widening gap between the haves and have-nots. With 40 per cent of children already living in some form of food poverty, climate events threaten to reverse any progress made against malnutrition.
In spite of all these outcomes, climate adaptation continues to occupy a secondary position in policymaking circles in the country. The government’s focus often remains on announcing ambitious renewable energy targets and achieving net-zero emissions by 2070. These goals are important, but mitigation alone is insufficient.
The report also notes that nearly half of India’s children under the age of 15 have no access to social safety nets. This is unacceptable for a country that aspires to become a developed economy by 2047. Children are the least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, yet are among the most severely affected. Their voices remain conspicuously absent from climate policymaking. India cannot afford such short-sightedness. A country with one of the world’s youngest populations is effectively placing its demographic dividend at peril, with millions of children projected to grow up malnourished, undereducated and vulnerable to recurring extreme weather events.
The real tragedy would not be that India failed to predict this crisis, but that its leaders saw it coming and still chose to ignore and prioritise profit over survival. What is needed is a complete turnaround of policy which treats the environment as a top priority. Every other decision should pass through the sustainability scanner. Forests, oceans, fresh water sources like rivers and lakes, mangroves, coral reefs, mountains, hills and such natural resources must be treated as infrastructure that belongs to the people and future generations. The actions of the Indian government tell a story that words cannot. Norms are being openly flouted for mining and big industry and so-called development with zero consideration for negative environmental impact.
A temporary government must not be allowed to cause irreversible damage to the environment and put the entire nation at risk. Because an environmental collapse will wipe out the prospect of any supposed development or progress that is being planned. And the strongest impact will be felt by the most vulnerable – children, who are owed the promise of a future at least, if not better than the last generations.
