It began, like many good issues do, with a small textual content message.
However what adopted? That was nothing in need of historic.
On June 12, 2025, inside IMD’s Mausam Bhawan—the nerve centre of India’s climate intelligence—one thing extraordinary occurred: casual employee’s unions, India’s nationwide climate service together with Greenpeace India sat in the identical room, co-creating a community-led response to excessive warmth.
This wasn’t a press convention. This wasn’t a lecture. This was the primary time within the nation that road distributors, gig staff, ASHA staff, and waste pickers gathered with prime IMD scientists, well being specialists, and designers—not as viewers members, however as equal members shaping the dialog.
We weren’t there simply to “be taught” We have been there to construct.
From WhatsApp Alerts to Climate Democracy
Our journey right here started months earlier—with gradual, affected person advocacy. For too lengthy, heatwave warnings felt like they began and resulted in newsrooms, not amongst individuals who wanted it essentially the most. So we labored with IMD to alter that. The primary breakthrough? Getting IMD to ship bilingual audio+textual content warmth alerts on WhatsApp, to a rising group of over 20 employee leaders throughout Delhi.
These alerts shortly became lifelines. They have been straightforward to ahead throughout union and market teams, they usually gave staff a heads-up they’d by no means had earlier than.
However what about individuals who aren’t on WhatsApp? Or don’t personal telephones?
That’s when the true problem started.
A Whiteboard, marker, and a query
We began small—putting in hand-written whiteboards in markets and labour chowks. Every morning, a neighborhood volunteer would replace the board with the day’s climate alerts. The concept was easy: convey warmth alerts out of telephones and onto the streets.
However we quickly hit a wall.
Not everybody might learn the alerts.
Not everybody had time—or confidence—to interpret the technical language.
And updating the boards every day turned a burden.
We realized: the intent was proper, however the design wanted to work tougher.
So we sat down with the group from Wobbly Tales and commenced imagining one thing smarter, easier, and visible—one thing individuals might look at and immediately perceive, no matter literacy or language.
Introducing: The Group Warmth Alert Board
What emerged was our colour-coded warmth alert board—the one IMD formally unveiled on the workshop.
Right here’s the way it works:
It makes use of color, not jargon. Based mostly on IMD + WHO warmth classes:
- Inexperienced = below 35°C (Samanya Garmi)
- Yellow = 35–40°C (Asahej Garmi)
- Orange = 41–45°C (Tez Garmi)
- Crimson = above 45°C (Bhishan Garmi)
It has three pockets with swappable playing cards:
- Warmth Stage – So you understand how scorching it feels.
- Well being Advisory – Matched to every warmth degree (primarily based on NDMA steering).
- Particular Climate Alert – Solely used throughout excessive occasions like robust winds, heatwaves (bathroom), or excessive humidity.
Now, these boards are in place in native markets and vendor areas. They’re up to date every day, not with markers however with playing cards. No want for studying lengthy texts or deciphering Celsius levels. It’s as straightforward as studying a visitors mild.
A Historic Workshop for a Warming World
Again on the workshop, Dr. Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, DGM at IMD, opened the day with a strong reminder – early warnings are solely as helpful as their accessibility. When alerts fail to achieve these most uncovered, they fail altogether.
The environment within the room was thrilling—not simply due to the historic collaboration, however as a result of everybody knew they have been witnessing a shift. Staff weren’t simply being skilled, they have been shaping the early warning system itself.
Dr. Akhil Srivastava’s hands-on session broke down how IMD’s warmth alerts are developed, how one can learn them, and how one can translate them into actionable info. Dr. Purvi Patel from the Nationwide Centre for Illness Management defined how warmth impacts the physique—and what to do when signs strike. Her session was filled with lightbulb moments.
After which, in a full-circle second, members practiced utilizing the boards themselves, role-playing how they’d replace and disseminate alerts of their native areas.
Why This Issues
This wasn’t simply coaching. This was about democratizing local weather info.
It was about redesigning methods in order that the individuals most affected by local weather change are the primary to obtain—and act on—crucial alerts. It was about flipping the script: from top-down messaging to community-owned resilience.
That is just the start.
And if we’ve discovered something from the streets of Delhi, it’s that small, inclusive concepts can flip into methods that save lives.
So the subsequent time the mercury rises, examine your native warmth board.
And know that it exists as a result of somebody identical to you thought:
“There needs to be a greater manner.”
As a result of Delhi is rising—and this time, we’re doing it collectively.
