Its time to protect India’s workers from heat

Context

• In the first week of April 2025, Delhi crossed a dangerous threshold: the temperature soared above 41°C, and nights offered little relief.

• These extreme conditions are no longer outliers but part of a new, deadly normal.

• With climate change intensifying year after year, Indian cities have become the epicentre of a growing crisis.

• And while heatwaves affect everyone, it is India’s millions of urban informal workers who are bearing the brunt of this slow-moving disaster.

• The Reserve Bank of India has pointed out, in 2024, that extreme heat threatens the health and livelihoods of occupationally exposed people, potentially causing a projected 4.5% loss to India’s GDP.

• Many Indian cities now have Heat Action Plans (HAPs), inspired by pioneering efforts as in Ahmedabad. These plans, guided by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), are meant to prepare cities for increasingly frequent and intense heatwaves. Yet, more than a decade later, most HAPs remain perfunctory, underfunded and poorly coordinated.

• The NDMA’s 2019 heat wave guidelines do not mention informal workers explicitly, but generally, under the category of outdoor workers and vulnerable groups.

• Globally, cities are adopting worker protections against rising heat. In the U.S., California and Oregon mandate employers to provide water, shade, rest breaks, and heat safety training.

• France’s “Plan Canicule” requires work adjustments, hydration during heat alerts, and opened public buildings and spaces to the public for cooling off.

• In Qatar and Australia, outdoor work is restricted during peak heat, and employers are obligated to assess and mitigate heat risks. India, too, offers examples.

• Ahmedabad’s HAP introduced adjusted working hours and shaded rest areas. Odisha mandates a halt to outdoor work during peak hours.

• These good practices and innovations do offer replicable, worker-centric models for adapting urban livelihoods to extreme heat.

• We urgently need a new kind of urban heat response: one that is worker centred, just, and grounded in lived realities.