Environmental Health

CHARM-India

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Climate and Health Adaptation for Resilience and Sustainable Healthcare Management in India (CHARM-India) project.

CHARM-India is a multi-institutional research and implementation project supported by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) under the Centre for Advanced Research (CAR) initiative. The project addresses the increasing impact of climate change on health and healthcare systems in India, including risks associated with extreme heat, flooding, water- and vector-borne diseases, and other climate-related stresses. 

The project aims to strengthen the resilience of healthcare systems by linking climate risk assessment with hospital-level planning and implementation. It will develop an integrated Climate-Health Vulnerability Assessment (CHVA) framework, operationalise Hospital Climate Action Plans (H-CAPs), and pilot feasible adaptation and mitigation measures within routine hospital operations. 

The project will be implemented across selected hospitals representing diverse climatic settings in India. The intended beneficiaries include healthcare institutions and their workforce, patients and communities served by these facilities, and policymakers and health-system stakeholders. 

PROJECT EXECUTION

The project follows a multi-phase, mixed-methods implementation research design across selected hospitals representing diverse climatic settings. 

Key activities include: 

  • Linking high-resolution climate data with retrospective and prospective hospital health records.  
  • Conducting Climate–Health Vulnerability Assessments (CHVA) at the hospital level.  
  • Assessing facility-level vulnerabilities related to infrastructure, energy, water, sanitation, waste management and other relevant domains.  
  • Developing and operationalising Hospital Climate Action Plans (H-CAPs).  
  • Engaging relevant hospital departments, including clinical services, public health, hospital administration, engineering and maintenance, infection control, biomedical waste management and information technology.  
  • Piloting feasible climate adaptation and mitigation measures, including heat management, climate-resilient WASH and waste systems, energy efficiency and workforce safety measures.  
  • Undertaking stakeholder engagement, capacity-building activities, workshops and simulation/mock exercises as part of implementation.  
  • Monitoring, documentation and evaluation of implementation activities and outcomes.  
  • Using a centralised data collection and monitoring platform to support standardised tracking and documentation across participating hospitals.  

IMPACT

As the project is yet to commence, there are currently no completed project outputs or measurable impact figures to report. The following can therefore be presented as expected outputs/outcomes: 

  • A standardised, hospital-centric Climate-Health Vulnerability Assessment framework.  
  • Hospital-specific climate vulnerability profiles and hotspot maps.  
  • Hospital Climate Action Plans across participating hospitals.  
  • Early-warning thresholds and climate-informed preparedness approaches.  
  • Pilot implementation of feasible climate adaptation and mitigation measures.  
  • Evidence on scalable approaches for heat mitigation, climate-resilient WASH and waste systems, energy efficiency and workforce safety.  
  • Implementation evidence to inform climate-resilient healthcare planning at institutional, state and national levels.  

The impact section can be updated periodically as the project progresses, including the number of hospitals covered, participants trained, workshops conducted, publications and other measurable outputs. 

 

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