We examine the impact of extreme heat during pregnancy on infant mortality and check if public interventions can serve as effective adaptation strategies. We show that 2 children die as infants out of 1000 births in India for high temperature during pregnancy, tentatively due to reduced agricultural yields, wages, and greater disease prevalence like diarrhea. The heat-infant mortality relationship holds in rural India only. Using phased introduction of an employment guarantee program and partial introduction of a community health care worker program for identification, we find that only the health program is effective in modifying the temperature-infant mortality relationship in rural India.

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Coal mining plays a key role in developing the economic backbone of many developing countries, such as India, although on a local scale. Coal mining industries enormously influence the surrounding environments and livelihoods. An open cast coal mine severely enhances the dust particles in the local atmosphere over time and in turn, affects the fertility of the surrounding lands. Additionally, the socioeconomic conditions of the local community go through a massive perturbation due to land acquisition, migration of people and insecurity of jobs. In this present work, an effort has been made to understand the effect of open cast coal mining on the diverse livelihoods of the rural community in Barjora colliery area of West Bengal. The livelihood pattern of the local community has significantly changed from pre-mining to post-mining, such as in agriculture sector, the work participation rate has reduced from 62% to 3%, and at present, about 55% people are now engaged in the mining sector. The immediate effect helped to increase the financial capacity of rural people. However, the upward socioeconomic condition is not sustainable for the long-term. The discontinuity in coal extraction is also the major cause for the job insecurity and vulnerability in socioeconomic life.

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