India’s next generation endangered by climate change, needs protection

November 1, 2025

A network of mangrove islet between India and Bangladesh shelters millions of residents and faces acute environmental threats. Rising water levels, saline intrusion, intensified storms, and vanishing terrain are immediate challenges, not distant predictions. Over five decades, hundreds of square kilometers have been lost to the ocean, forcing communities to relocate.

Children bear the brunt: malnutrition rates soar, access to potable water is limited, and schools often serve as temporary shelters, disrupting education. This situation highlights a universal truth: climate disruptions exacerbate inequalities among youth. Youngsters are more vulnerable to heat stress and illness and rely heavily on functioning health and learning systems. Those already disadvantaged suffer first when these services collapse.

In the Indian context, children f r o m e c o n o m i c a l l y weaker families face far higher developmental risks after floods or d r o u gh t s . E n s u r i n g nutrition, uninterrupted schooling, and climate resilience is crucial to transforming India’s young population into a robust, capable generation. The Sundarbans’ children are not an isolated tragedy; they are the frontline of a global injustice. The communities most affected contribute the least to carbon emissions, yet bear the heaviest burden.

As António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, has said, climate change is “a death sentence” for the most vulnerable. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the faces of children who may never see a stable school year, clean water, or a safe home. We see a pattern already. Children in droughtstricken East Africa abandoning the school to collect water; children in the Philippines learning inside classrooms that were rebuilt three times after typhoons; Indigenous children in the Amazon watching forests and futures burn.

Across places, this story is the same: climate change is destroying childhood. For India, the stakes are both moral and strategic. By mid-century, rapid industrial growth, urbanisation and energy transitions will place increasing demands on land, water and resource systems. The government has already taken strong steps, from Mission LiFE to Poshan Abhiyaan, Swachh Bharat Mission and state climate action plans, that recognise resilience as central to development.

The opportunity now is to extend this leadership to children. If investments in social protection, nutrition, education and child protection are fully integrated into climate strategies, India’s demographic dividend can become a powerful driver of resilience and growth. A healthier, better-educated, climate-secure generation will be the backbone of the $10 trillion economy that India aspires to build. When Wangari Maathai sowed trees in Kenya, or when millions of children walked with Greta Thunberg, they all demonstrated that moral clarity can move politics.

The question is will India and the world act with the same urgency for its children? Because what is at stake is not just their childhood, but the country’s trajectory. We cannot aspire to be a $10 trillion economy while leaving millions of our children to grow up stunted, displaced, and forgotten. The evolving climate is already reshaping our economy and society. Whether that change becomes a risk or an opportunity for the next generation will depend on the choices we make today. With focused action, children can be protected from climate impacts, included in decision-making, and supported through policies that address their health, education, and protection. If we align climate ambition with child well-being, we will secure a future where every child has the chance to realise their potential and in doing so, we will strengthen India’s growth and resilience.