Are India's Dalits at Higher Risk During Heatwaves?

India's unusually severe heatwave is suspected to have killed more than 200 people and made tens of thousands ill so far. Amid these extreme weather conditions, there are concerns about the country's marginalized people.A severe heat wave across India, which began last month, has significantly impacted the north and west of the country, with temperatures soaring to unprecedented levels.

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The India Meteorological Department issued red alerts at the end of May warning about a "very high likelihood" of people developing heat illness and heat stroke, and urging "extreme care" for vulnerable individuals.

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Even during a heatwave, Kanchan Devi is forced to make her living outdoors baking bricks in the neighboring state of Haryana.

Temperature warnings hold little meaning to informal laborers like Devi. The twenty-something-year-old only has a piece of cloth wrapped around her head to protect her from the sun.

Devi, who belongs to the Dalit community — a historically marginalized group from the lowest level of India's centuries-old discriminatory caste hierarchy — squats for hours at a time as works at the furnace producing bricks. Last month, Devi experienced dizziness at work during the heatwave and was subsequently hospitalized due to low blood pressure.

'Risking our lives'

A report by the Center for Labour Research and Action found that at the 21 brick kilns it surveyed, over 50% of the workers were Dalits.

"Our lives are always at risk," said Raheb Rajput, a Dalit construction worker living in New Delhi who told DW that he lost his cousin last month in the ongoing heatwave. "It is getting hotter with every passing year."

Nearly 25,000 people suffered suspected heatstroke during India's summer season that falls between March and May, news website ThePrint reported citing government data.

The National Alliance of People's Movement, a civil rights organization, demanded that this year's extreme heat should be declared a disaster under India's District Management Act, 2005.

Is caste a heat vulnerability factor in India?

Several studies and media reports highlighted the plight of workers in the unorganized sector, which represents a huge chunk of the Indian labor force, especially during sweltering summers — but caste has rarely been recognized as a factor contributing to a populations's heat vulnerability.

Experts reckon that socio-economic factors can impact a person's vulnerability to heat-related risks. A study by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) revealed that occupational heat exposure exacerbates social inequalities.

"Research suggests that caste-based division of labor continues to exist in India's modern market economy," said Arpit Shah, a professor at the Indian Institute of Management in Bengaluru, one of India's most populous cities.

Shah's ongoing research explores the relationship between caste and occupational heat exposure.

"Construction workers and sanitation workers are disproportionately likely to be from the marginalized caste groups. Since these occupations require more outdoor work, there is greater risk because of heat waves," Shah added.

By some accounts, 90% of the workforce in India is employed in the informal sector. A massive proportion of the workers in the informal sector belongs to the Dalit community, Scheduled Tribes and other "lower" caste groups, according to a 2020 report by the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR).

Challenges faced by brick kiln workers

Most laborers at a brick kiln are migrants living in shanties which are made by merely stacking up bricks on top of each other with tin sheets or tarpaulin used for the roof.

At times, the migrant workers stay with their families, including children, at the site of the kiln in severely hot temperatures.

Kanchan Devi said she sleeps in the field at night. "It is hotter inside our tin-roofed shanty."

Most of the shanties lack basic amenities like fans and light bulbs. Most of the workers DW spoke to said they arranged for fans on their own.

Some employers fail to provide even drinking water. Laborers are forced to search for water in nearby areas, and this scarcity also puts them at risk.

Gulrez Shah Azhar, a former researcher with the Public Health Foundation of India, said that heat vulnerability can be exacerbated by people's individual environments.

"Imagine living in a shanty, there's no separate bathroom or running water supply enabling privacy to take a shower. All of these factors add to how vulnerable a person is to heat," he explained.

The mercury's rise makes access to cooling and shade a crucial heat adaptation strategy but most of the people from the Dalit community DW spoke to did not own air coolers — let alone air conditioners.

The lower caste and tribal households are also reported to have 10%-30% less access to electricity.

Pathway for more inclusive policy to deal with heatwaves

The National Disaster Management Authority adopted the UN Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and released its plan in 2016. The initial plan considered only the elderly and disabled as vulnerable groups to natural disasters. However, in 2019, it was revised to include Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in this category.

"The Heat Action Plans formulated at state, city and district levels do not take the impact on vulnerable caste groups into account," Beena Johnson, general secretary at NCDHR said.

A study by Delhi-based think tank, Centre for Policy Research found that "nearly all Heat Action Plans are poor at identifying and targeting vulnerable groups."

Mukul Sharma, author of the book "Caste and Nature" said that the government only provides data for deaths due to heat but if we were to disaggregate that, we will most likely find that many of them are Dalits.

"We are living in a different time, for all of us, heat is the greatest inequality issue of our time," said Azhar.

Edited by: Keith Walker

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(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 12, 2024 06:30 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).