On a scorching afternoon in one of Delhi’s busiest markets, two different worlds exist side by side.
One is inside brightly-lit, air-conditioned showrooms, where customers move slowly between racks of clothes, escaping the worst of the summer heat.
The other is outside, under a blazing sun – where street vendors, fruit sellers, cycle-rickshaw drivers and ice-cream cart operators continue working through temperatures soaring above 40C.
In the afternoon, even walking through the market feels exhausting. But for millions of informal workers across Delhi, staying out of the heat isn’t an option.
Nearly 90% of India’s workforce is informal – most without contracts or job security, many dependent on outdoor work for daily wages.
Among them is 52-year-old Harish Chandra, who pedals a cycle-rickshaw through Delhi’s crowded streets until the heat becomes too much to bear.
At a public tap, he splashes water over his face before settling into a narrow strip of shade near the market.
“The body gives up,” he says.
Dressed in thin, worn cotton clothes, Chandra says Delhi’s summers have become harder to bear with each passing year.
“My day starts around nine in the morning, when the weather is still manageable. But by noon, it becomes difficult. The sun is so harsh that sometimes I feel my body giving up while I pedal,” he says.
“But if we stop, we don’t earn,” says Chandra. “And if we don’t earn, the family doesn’t eat.”
He recently sent his wife and three children back to their village in Bihar state. The temperatures there are equally high, he says, but open spaces and better ventilation make it easier to cope than Delhi’s cramped neighbourhoods and congested lanes.
For workers like Chandra, who spend most of their time outdoors, summer is no longer just a season, but an annual struggle for survival.
India’s heat season typically lasts from April until early July, before the monsoon brings relief. But climate scientists say extreme heat is becoming longer, harsher and more unpredictable as heatwaves across South Asia intensify under global warming.
