When climate collapse becomes a classroom crisis: How heat and drought are forcing India’s girls out of school

What happens to a country with one of the world’s largest youth populations when it falters on its promise to provide education, especially due to climate change? The very aspiration that once chronicled a bright future is now blistering under rising heat across parts of India. According to a UNICEF report, 54 million Indian students saw their education disrupted by climate extremes in 2024 alone. A drought in the Deccan or an unforgiving heatwave in the Gangetic plains is no longer just a climatic disaster; it has become an educational upheaval. And at the heart of this crisis stands a demographic that has long carried the weight of adversity: girls. Yet India’s struggle, though vast in scale, is far from isolated. From Cambodia to El Salvador, from the Philippines to West Africa, gir