Heat & Hustle: Informal Workers Buckle Under Climate Pressure

Time of India

01-05-2025

New Delhi: Loss in income even with the day temperature going up by a single degree — this is the fragile existence of workers in the informal sector in the capital. This was noted in a report of the Workers' Collective for Climate Justice – South Asia and Greenpeace India. Titled 'Labouring Through the Climate Crisis: A Qualitative Study of Climate Experiences Among Informal Workers in Delhi', the report narrates the summer woes of ragpickers, vendors, rickshaw pullers, labourers, domestic workers and informal sector workers, who make up about 80% of the city's workforce.
The city isn't designed for the informal sector, says the report, which flags inadequacies like the absence of policies and legal recognition of such workers who also have no access to water, shade, transport, healthcare and economic stability.
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The report highlights how street vendors are forced to face the harsh conditions and evictions fears on footpaths, traffic intersections and flood-prone streets. Tarpaulins, which they once used as shade, are now confiscated for facilitating 'encroachments'. Without public shelters or cooling zones, rickshaw pullers work through exhaustion, sometimes suffering heatstroke. Waste pickers, especially women, are forced to segregate waste under the summer sun or in cramped homes, the local segregation sorting centres or dhalaos having been shut down for public sanitation. Even indoors, domestic workers spend hours in sweltering kitchens, cooking over gas stoves, even when power cuts make the heat unbearable.
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Due to the lack of affordable housing, these people lived in informal settlements, often situated along drains or in low-lying areas, which are highly vulnerable to flooding. They also rebuild their shacks after such incidents without official support or compensation, the report pointed out.
In the summer, street vendors and waste pickers report fainting, infections, breathing problems and chronic fatigue, while domestic workers suffer from dehydration, dizziness and rashes. The report added, "Heatstroke, joint pain and fatigue among rickshaw pullers go unrecorded. Lack of access to healthcare, hydration, toilets, or rest compounds health risks — especially for women." It added that women in informal work often stretched their bodies, time and income to breaking points.
Citing personal testimonies of street hawkers see a Rs 1,000 per day income dipping to Rs 300 due to the heat or of rising expenses on health, travel to work, bottled water and use of paid toilets, the report depicted how women vendors and waste pickers suffered immense physical privations. "Many women avoid the dangerous, unhygienic or paid public toilets, resulting in chronic dehydration, urinary tract infection and other heat-related illnesses," the report observed.
During the monsoons, transportation is a problem with deluged roads delaying buses and autos. Consequently, many women workers spend hours commuting to their workplaces. They also end up travelling late at night, leaving them at risk of violence and accidents, the report said.