Lead

As climate change drives up temperatures across Asia, millions of informal workers in cities like Delhi are being forced into an impossible trade-off between providing for their families and protecting their health. Construction worker Brijpal Singh, 51, spends long hours under the blazing sun in Noida, a satellite city in India's National Capital Region, where temperatures routinely soar past 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit). Work on the building site rarely stops, and by the end of each shift Singh says his heart is pounding, and he is usually dizzy, dehydrated and physically drained. Yet taking a day off is a luxury he cannot afford—missing work would mean losing his daily wage of 500 to 600 rupees ($6 to $7, €5.20 to €6.10), money that supports his wife and three children in a village in Uttar Pradesh, two days' journey away.

Coverage comparison

Deutsche Welle's reporting highlights the human impact of extreme heat on informal workers, framing the story through personal accounts and expert commentary. The coverage emphasizes the health consequences of working in scorching conditions, the economic pressures that keep workers on the job despite the risks, and the broader implications for productivity and inequality. While the article presents statistical data on the scale of the informal economy and economic losses, it anchors the narrative in the lived experience of workers like Singh, who describes the dilemma in his own words: "There are days when I don't feel like working," he says. "But if I miss a day, who will take care of my children and pay for their expenses?"

The reporting also incorporates the views of researchers and advocates, such as Ameena Kidwai, lead researcher at People's Courage International, a nonprofit working to strengthen informal workers' rights. Kidwai warns that "wage losses are only going to worsen as temperatures continue to rise," noting that workers are already putting in many more hours than before to complete the same amount of work.

Key claims

According to Deutsche Welle, roughly 5 million people work in the Delhi region's informal economy, accounting for about 80% of the total workforce. The past decade has been India's warmest on record, bringing more frequent, intense, and prolonged heat waves, the outlet reports. Rising temperatures are also costing informal workers the equivalent of 2% of the country's GDP annually—nearly $80 billion (€69 billion)—according to one study cited in the report. The article further states that women in the informal economy shoulder a disproportionately large burden due to unpaid caregiving responsibilities, and that climate change will only deepen existing inequalities because those with the fewest resources are often the most exposed to extreme heat.