By mid-May 2026, summer had already turned unforgiving. Extreme heat has already been evidently felt across the parts of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Orissa where temperatures ranging from 47°C to 51°C were recorded weeks ahead of seasonal timeline, as reported by India Meteorological Department (IMD). Additionally, IMD has issued warning of anomalously higher days of heatwave across northern, central, eastern and northwestern regions of India. Heatwaves are now seasonal reality which was earlier an event. However, the geography of this crisis now extends far beyond India’s traditionally heat-prone areas. From the agricultural belts of Punjab and Haryana to humid tea estates of Assam, rising temperatures are increasingly reshaping not only how but also whether millions of women can participate in work without hindrance. Heatwave (PTI)For India’s blue-collar women, the climate crisis is no longer a distant environmental concern rather it is a seasonal economic shock. Across the nation, several women sustain livelihoods via informal occupations like agricultural labour in Punjab’s wheat fields and Bihar’s paddy farms, tea plantation work in Assam, brick-kiln labour along the Gangetic plains, construction work in cities like Nagpur, street vending in Delhi and Ahmedabad, and garment stitching in Tamil Nadu. Also, they are earning their livelihood via home-based activities such as bidi rolling, tailoring, and food processing often in poorly ventilated spaces. All these occupations share one common defining feature that, they are highly exposed to heat and poor working conditions.As per the report of Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change 2025, India has lost approximately 247 billion potential labour hours in 2024 due to excessive high temperature which is equivalent to 419 hours per person, and which is also124% higher in comparison to the 1990s baseline. This associated economic loss of income is projected to be approximately $94 billion. Notably, the two sectors particularly agriculture and construction where women are disproportionately concentrated at the lowest end of the wage structure has suffered loss of 66% and 20% respectively of the total lost hours.Moreover, regional patterns of this seasonal crisis further complicate the scenario. In central and western India, excessive heat cause hindrance to outdoor labour, while in parts of Punjab and Bihar, rising temperatures during crucial agricultural cycles is reducing working hours in the fields, thereby affecting both productivity and wages. Also, in eastern parts of India, high humidity magnifies the heat stress, as this reduces the body’s ability to cool itself. Perhaps this, in urban centres, women working in unorganised sectors especially garments and small manufacturing units face heat trapped within enclosed poorly ventilated spaces.The rising temperature is also a deeply gendered challenge. According to the report of Food and Agriculture Organisation’s 2024, The Unjust Climate: Measuring the Impacts of Climate Change on the Rural Poor, Women and Youth, empirically grounded on 950 million households across 24 countries, states that female led households suffer of approximately 8% more of their annual income to climate stress in comparison to male-headed households. And the report further highlights that with every 1°C increase in long-term temperatures disproportionately affect income level of women. In developing economy like India, where women’s rights to land ownership, credit, political representation and formal employment remains limited, this fundamental issue translates directly into huge financial vulnerability. Without collateral, the women in unorganised sector remain excluded from institutional finance. And the same is very evidently supported empirically by the real-world circumstances. As a survey of 2026 titled- Breaking Point: Heat and the Garment Floor undertaken by Tata Institute of Social Sciences in collaboration with Heat Watch, targeting primarily on garment workers of Tamil Nadu and Delhi-NCR, documented that 94% of female workers were suffering from heat-related health issues like heat strokes, body rashes, skin infections, dehydration, and fatigue. Additionally, more than 50% of the respondents stated that extreme heat had directly impacted their work performance and ultimately leading to low income. Despite of such significant consequences the government still fails to consider these losses, and no gender specific policy frameworks has been developed considering it. However, there are models which demonstrates the effective intervention by government has resulted in minimising the financial impacts. SEWA’s parametric heat insurance programme, developed jointly by Swiss Re and Climate Resilience for All, marks as the most significant advancement model for safeguarding the vulnerable workers as it covered more than 50,000 individuals across 22 districts of India, with 92% receiving payouts to offset income loss during extreme heat, which accumulated to approximately ₹2.92 crore. But still there is need to address this issue considering the women at the epicentre as they suffer from biological and physical constrains.This issue persistently leads to a broader structural concern, and it has also been highlighted by the United Nations in FAO Report of 2024- The unjust climate: Assessing multidimensional poverty and climate vulnerabilities in rural India as it mentions that in India a significant proportion of agricultural policies and climate policies fails to address gender and climate vulnerability. And the probable reason could be that in India, policy benefits often flow through land ownership records and formal employment structures pathways which generally excludes a vast majority of informal women workers.The discussion is clear and it is to recommend; Heatwaves must be officially integrated into disaster management in a way so that this event could be recognised and compensate income losses suffered by women in informal setup as well. And in addition to this, the Labour regulations must enforce heat-safe working conditions, including rest breaks, water access, and flexible working hours proactively. Perhaps this, microfinance institutions need to incorporate climate-contingent repayment mechanisms. Climate finance should also be leveraged to subsidise insurance products tailored for informal workers. Most importantly, adaptation strategies must be redesigned to reach those outside formal systems. India’s climate discourse does majorly focus on emissions, infrastructure, and energy transitions which are critical, but resilience must also be measured at the level of livelihoods and gender also. A climate strategy which does not account for these real issues is not merely fundamentally incomplete but prone to the risk of institutionalising inequality in a warming world. As India encounters hotter future, safeguarding blue-collar women can no longer remain a peripheral welfare concern rather it must be central to climate policy, labour protection, and financial resilience so that these women can survive the rising heat with dignity, security, and economic protection.(The views expressed are personal)This article is authored by Ankita, FPM scholar, IMI Delhi.