Extreme heat costs Asia's poorest workers health and wages

In Noida, a major industrial city in India's National Capital Region, 51-year-old construction worker Brijpal Singh grinds away under scorching temperatures that regularly exceed 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit). His daily wage of 500 to 600 rupees ($6 to $7, €5.20 to €6.10) is essential to support his wife and three children back in his village. Singh acknowledges the discomfort and danger, but he has no choice but to work, as missing a day would mean loss of income and inability to care for his family.

Across the Delhi region, around 5 million people are employed in the informal economy, making up roughly 80% of the workforce. As climate change escalates temperatures, these workers, paid by the day, face the dilemma of providing for their families while safeguarding their health. Research indicates that rising temperatures are costing informal workers the equivalent of 2% of India's GDP annually, amounting to nearly $80 billion (€69 billion).

Heat is eroding productivity and causing increased illnesses, with one study suggesting that it could be costing 2% of the country's GDP each year. Workers are now putting in extra hours to complete the same amount of work, with tasks that once took eight hours now extending to 10 to 12 hours during the hottest months. The consequences of extreme heat are severe, ranging from respiratory and gastrointestinal issues to stroke and kidney disease.

Even a lack of recovery becomes a defining feature of urban heat for workers in construction, street vending, and delivery services.

Many of these informal workers are migrants who leave their families behind to earn a living in rapidly growing cities. Patricia Samantha Narvaez, a program manager at the Philippine development organization IDEALS, notes that home should be a place of relief, but for many, it is a dense neighborhood with poor ventilation, limited green spaces, and heat-absorbing concrete.

This is the reality for Brijpal Singh, who returns to a single room with poor ventilation after work during the hot months from April to June, turning it into a furnace.

In Quezon City, a densely packed city northeast of Manila, where 42% of the employed population are informal workers, extreme heat presents a significant challenge. Aida Tano, a former garment factory worker who now performs odd jobs like sewing and cleaning, vividly remembers the oppressive heat in her factory. With no air conditioning and only one electric fan shared by four workers, the production floor became an oven, leaving little escape from the heat.

Despite her complaints, management was not willing to provide additional cooling measures. Tano now struggles with the same heat at home, relying on electric fans and window coverings to mitigate the discomfort.