Why Women Are Especially Vulnerable During India ’ s Deadly Heat Waves

Bhanu ben Jadav has been earning her daily wage for the past 18 years by threading beads into intricate necklaces in her slum settlement of Vasant Nagar in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. She earns around 2,500 rupees, or $30 a month, to feed her family, but the work requires patience, concentration, and cool weather—which has, of late, become near-impossible with the mercury reaching 46°C (114.8°F) this week. In recent days, at least 96 people have died from the sweltering heat in two of India’s most populous states. “I get headaches, nausea, and vomiting, and my capacity to work shrinks,” 44-year-old Jadav tells TIME over the phone. “I lose so much in this extreme heat.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Women like Jadav make up 65% of the world’s home-based workforce, which consists of informal workers who produce goods or services in or near their homes for local, domestic, or global markets. There are some 42 million workers like this in India alone. Now they are bearing the brunt of deadly heat waves across South Asia, which experts say could halt or even reverse India’s progress in reducing poverty, food and income security, and gender equality. More from TIME [video id=vB3Q8mTY autostart="viewable"] Read More: Western Architecture is Making India’s Heat Waves Worse Last year, India’s meteorological department stated that the country experienced the hottest March since 1901, when it...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized climate change Explainer India Londontime Source Type: news