A file photo of a construction worker drinks water from a container as he takes a break at a construction site during a hot summer day in New Delhi, India
Image: Priyanshu Singh / Reuters
Every year is breaking last year’s record, says Seema Mundoli over the telephone. The professor at Azim Premji University, from their School of Climate Change and Sustainability, was speaking with Forbes India from Delhi on April 21, the day the capital recorded a maximum temperature of 41.3°C, more than the highest temperature of 41°C recorded in April last year. It was also the highest temperature for the month of April since 2022, as per a Times of India report.
“I have the option of not doing fieldwork in the intense afternoon heat, but the worst affected are certainly going to be people who work outside, whether it is construction labour or gig workers, who do not have the option to take time off, because they will lose the day’s wages,” she says.
Up to 75 percent of India’s workforce, or 380 million (38 crore) people, depend on heat-exposed labour, as per a 2022 World Bank report. This largely includes blue-collar and the informal sector workforce in agriculture, construction, manufacturing and delivery services. The report further said that with heat-exposed labour contributing to nearly half of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), “by 2030, India may account for 34 million of the projected 80 million job losses from heat stress associated productivity decline”.
In January this year, the World Meteorological Organization confirmed that 2024 was the warmest year on record, at about 1.55°C above pre-industrial levels. A month later, heatwaves arrived early in India, which the India Meterological Department (IMD) called the hottest February in 125 years. The IMD further forecast above-normal temperatures in most parts of India between April and June, including extended heatwave episodes that might last 10-11 days in Central and Eastern India.
When the outside body temperature reaches close to your body temperature of 37°C, the body fails to release the internal heat that is generated as part of the basal metabolic rate, and you start to feel heat-stressed, wrote physician and global health expert Dr Chandrakant Lahariya in The Hindu on April 21. “Heat stress can affect multiple organs, including the kidneys, the liver and the brain, and may cause sickness and even death,” he said.
Policies and provisions for the informal workforce
Neeraja Kudrimoti, lead–climate action at non-profit Transform Rural India, is seeing how the heat stress is making it difficult for farmers to work in the field, how it is impacting livestock, availability of food and water, and health, particularly of women. She calls heat-induced stress a “vicious cycle” that not only impacts health, but also the economic security of people in rural areas.
The non-profit works with the bottom 1 lakh villages and marginalised communities across sectors like governance, gender, employment and entrepreneurship, and farm prosperity. Their core presence is in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. She gives an anecdotal example of how many rural communities dependent on the daily wage employment provided National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA)—which is mostly outdoor labour—are unable to work due to the heat. “There is also load-shedding during summers in the villages we work, so farmers dependent on electricity for irrigation also suffer,” she says, adding that high prices of vegetables and food costs add to the income pressure.
A November 2024 study by Saudamini Das and E Somanthan published in Environment Research Letters assessed informal sector workers in Delhi during peak heat in the summer of 2019. They found that apart from income losses and health impacts such as the loss of sleep and more self-reported sickness, the workers faced increased expenses due to requirements for more water, ice and doctor visits. A one-degree increase in mean temperature is associated with a decline in net earnings of about 16 percent, the study said, adding that “net earnings were 40 percent lower during the two heatwaves that occurred during the study period”.
Kudrimoti explains that when heat affects the health of family members, particularly of children and the elderly who are more vulnerable, women often have to stop working and devote themselves to caregiving responsibilities. “This impacts the workforce participation of women,” she says, adding that when water tables dry up due to the heat, it is the women again who are affected, as they have to go long distances to fetch water for the households.
She says that while rural communities themselves take initiatives like tree plantations, low-cost water harvesting structures and building mud houses to protect themselves from the heat as they work outdoors, there should be “integrated and sustained efforts” from the government. This includes upgrading infrastructure, and providing help like provision of shade, water and sanitation, and health care facilities, apart from a financial safety net for daily wage labourers—like an insurance provision—that will protect them even if they miss a day’s work due to heat.
Also read: Blazing summer, harsh temperature may heat up food prices, crimp consumption again
What are companies up to?
While informal sector workers are largely dependent on government action to address heat stress, formal sector workers—regular, part-time or contractual—are dependent on informed, sensitive action from their companies.
Aditya Narayan Mishra, managing director and CEO of CIEL HR, a human resources solutions provider, identifies consumer goods, manufacturing, construction, quick commerce delivery, supply chain logistics and sales executives as some of the heat-exposed sectors and roles. In his experience, companies, particularly larger ones, are educating their employees about heat-related precautions, hydration, and stress prevention. They are rescheduling activities to avoid outdoor work at peak times, improving ventilation systems, scheduling breaks during the day, and some are providing innovative products like cooling helmets or jackets to employees. “It [these efforts] go from the company’s P&L and hence, there is some hesitation, naturally. But companies that understand employee wellbeing do it. Large companies, of course, want to build a strong employer brand, and can also afford it compared to small and medium-sized organisations,” he says.
For instance, manufacturing company CEAT conducts awareness drives led by factory medical officers at their manufacturing facilities. These include circulars, and daily safety briefings where precautionary measures and symptoms of heat-related illnesses are discussed, says Somraj Roy, chief human resource officer (CHRO). “We also emphasise dietary support during this period, providing nimbu paani (lemon water) at regular intervals, and including dahi (curd) in meals to maintain hydration and internal cooling,” he says, adding there is a car / mobility policy for field sales employees to reduce their exposure to harsh outdoor conditions. The company has around 8,000 employees, including management and associates, and the sales and manufacturing teams represent more than 50 percent of their employee base. They operate six manufacturing facilities across India.
The Aditya Birla Group launched a programme to tackle heat stress among employees in December 2023, as per a note on their website. As part of this, they conducted qualitative assessments at 56 sites, including Hindalco, cement, pulp and fibre, chemicals and textiles, covering 1,732 workplaces, identifying high-risk areas. Here, they implemented solutions like rest areas, adjusted work schedules and cool drinking water. A quantitative assessment was done with thermal work limit (TWL) equipment to implement control measures in critical zones, and psychological monitoring identified 711 high-risk employees at 34 sites, who were “given special attention or reassigned to cooler areas during peak summer months”, the note says.
While companies tend to wait for policy signals, by taking initiatives like reducing heat stress among employees they can set signals that can inform policies, says Hisham Mundol, chief advisor, India, Environmental Defense Fund, a US-based non-profit environmental advocacy group. “Oftentimes, the government picks up best practices from companies. A notable example is how companies with progressive policies for their migrant labour force showed that they can reduce turnover and improve productivity,” he says.
According to him, there is still a lack of urgency among stakeholders because heat stress is not a 365-day problem. “Heat stress and heatwaves are happening more frequently, but it is still for a limited period. Once the rains come in July and things stabilise, people tend to take their foot off the accelerator, when in fact, that should be the time you build your heat shelters, come up with policies, or plan water stations,” he says.
Mundoli of Azim Premji University says that how we respond to heat stress points to a larger question of how we imagine the running of our cities in the long-term. She says implementation of heat action plans is essential to safeguard the formal and informal sector workforce in the long-run. In 2013, Ahmedabad became the first municipal corporation in Asia to develop a heat action plan. Since then, more than 23 states and around 140 cites have city and state-level heat action plans, according to Dr Lahariya in The Hindu.
Mundol of Environmental Defense Fund says that not all cities have heat action plans, and even in ones that do, it has not been adequately budgeted or costed for. “Sometimes, there is a knee-jerk reaction, where in the middle of a heatwave, you want to see the status of your heat action plan. But you cannot act in four hours. You need months to act on it,” he says, adding that temperatures are rising, and heatwaves are happening every year, so having dedicated budgets, and having more senior-level oversight on whether the plan is being implemented will go a long way. While short-term measures are necessary, in the long-term, he says, “you cannot shelter or hydrate your way out of heatwaves. You have to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases you are pumping in”.