Latest news with #Workers'CollectiveforClimateJustice–SouthAsia
Time of India
01-05-2025
- Climate
- Time of India
Heat & Hustle: Informal Workers Buckle Under Climate Pressure
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. You Can Also Check: Delhi AQI | Weather in Delhi | Bank Holidays in Delhi | Public Holidays in Delhi 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. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Google Brain Co-Founder Andrew Ng, Recommends: Read These 5 Books And Turn Your Life Around Blinkist: Andrew Ng's Reading List Undo 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.
Al Jazeera
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
This May Day, workers unite to make big polluters pay for climate damage
As extreme weather events become the new normal, informal workers across South Asia are bearing the growing brunt of intersecting crises. Labour rights violations and poor social protections are worsening under the climate crisis. In India, amid the ongoing heatwave, we may have come to a boiling point as street vendors, waste pickers, and other informal workers rise in defiance, coming together in solidarity. Their demands for compensation for losses and other damages are aimed squarely at the coal, oil and gas corporations. In 2023 alone, climate disasters prompted by oil and gas corporations have affected more than 9 million people in Asia, while Big Oil continues to block climate action and spread disinformation, amassing immense wealth. This International Workers' Day, a new coalition is forming in Delhi. Informal workers, trade unionists and climate justice campaigners like Greenpeace India, supported by counterparts in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, have launched the Workers' Collective for Climate Justice – South Asia. Along with the Collective, groups have signed the Polluters Pay Pact, a global campaign to hold billionaires and polluting corporations accountable for the climate crisis, by demanding that the governments introduce new taxes on fossil fuel corporations to help communities rebuild from climate disasters and invest in inclusive adaptation solutions. Informal workers in South Asia are no strangers to crises. They have been on the front lines of social marginalisation, and increasingly, the effects of climate change. South Asia, with more than 80 percent of its labour force in the informal sector, is seeing rising temperatures and erratic weather events that are drastically affecting people's ability to work and survive. In 2024, Greenpeace India documented how street vendors face financial loss and health risks during peak summer months, with vendors in cities like Delhi reporting more than a 50% decline in income due to heat waves. Yet, workers remain largely absent in policymaking. While just five oil majors earned more than $102bn in 2024, informal workers are left to bear the brunt of the crisis. From the struggles of jute mill workers in Bengal to the tea plantation workers' resistance across the region – labour organising has secured fundamental rights and labour protection for millions. They were never just about wages, but about dignity, recognition, and power. Today, that legacy is more important than ever. The climate crisis is fundamentally altering the nature of life and work. These effects are set to worsen under a carbon-intensive scenario, with projections of more than 800 million South Asians living in locations that will become climate hotspots by 2050. In a strong response, workers are reclaiming the power of collectivising. When workers unite across sectors, castes, genders, religions and ethnicities, they challenge systems of both exploitation and environmental degradation. This movement refuses to flatten their diverse experiences into a single narrative. By connecting the strength of past labour struggles with the urgency of the climate crisis, this collective is not merely reacting, it's forging a new path forward. Communities on the front lines of climate effects such as fisherfolk and waste pickers are agents of knowledge and lived experience. They witness real-time ecological changes, gaining an understanding of the risks to their livelihoods that policy briefs are often too slow to capture. Yet, both domestic and global climate policy spaces continue to remain distant, dominated by elite institutions and exclusionary technocratic jargon. Further, it is well established that in the Global South, non-economic losses such as the loss of culture and community far exceed economic ones. Addressing these losses requires the meaningful involvement of affected communities. Particular attention must be paid to ensuring that Loss and Damage financing is equitable and just, without deepening the existing debt burden or imposing unfair conditions on the very countries already bearing the brunt of the crisis. Loss and damage from climate change in South Asia are already running into the billions of dollars annually. By 2070, this number could jump to $997bn. Despite the promises made at UN Climate Change Conferences, climate finance has been sluggish, fragmented, and insufficient. Wealthy nations and polluters have under-delivered while continuing to drill for new oil and gas. The adaptation needs of workers must be met now. They urgently require shade and paid breaks for livelihood and survival. While global climate finance talks stall, adaptation costs and urgency are mounting. This is why the Polluters Pay Pact is so vital. It's not just a gesture – it demands enforceable commitments. As workers gather in Delhi this May Day, they send a clear message: A just, sustainable future must be led by the working class. By holding oil and gas corporations accountable, climate resilience becomes a right – not a privilege. The views expressed in this article are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
