How Insurance Helped 46,000 Women Avoid Deadly Work In Scorching Heat
NDTV
With climate change raising temperatures during heat waves, millions of Indians face a difficult choice: work in dangerous conditions or go hungry.
In Ahmedabad, temperatures climbed above 43C (109F) every day between May 19 and May 25, creating deadly hot working conditions for many of the labourers who keep the local economy humming.
For 40-year-old Lataben Arvindbhai Makwana, it was too unbearable to run her sewing machine inside her tin-roofed house, which has little ventilation and only a small ceiling fan. As a daily wage labourer, that meant she was not earning the money she needed to feed her kids and buy blood pressure medication for herself.
"It's getting worse every summer," Ms Makwana said. The extreme heat is especially dangerous for people like her who suffer from hypertension.
