As temperatures rise in India and climate shocks intensify, the 2.9 million members of the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) are facing a horrific reality. For these vulnerable workers, the climate crisis is not just about extreme weather – it is a brutal force that is undermining their livelihoods, health and dignity. As SEWA Director Reema Nanavaty explains, the fight for climate justice is urgent and essential to prevent further human suffering and systemic injustice.
There is an invisible killer in India. It does not manifest itself in the form of violent warfare, authoritarian government power or ruthless exploitation by private actors. Yet it is just as violent.
The invisible killer's attacks start harmlessly – with headaches, dizziness and confusion. The real damage begins when the killer's attacks continue. Within days, he relentlessly forces his victims to give up their livelihoods and deprives them of the opportunity to earn a living wage. Over time, he undermines every aspect of daily life, denying victims and their families basic necessities such as medicine, daily meals and safe shelter, and destroying their children's educational prospects.
For India's working poor, the invisible killer is almost inescapable. It is the thin air they breathe, the scorching hot streets beneath their feet and the water that fails to quench their thirst. The invisible killer is the heat.
This summer alone, more than 140 people have died in heat waves in India, including three SEWA members. The organization, which received the Right Livelihood Award in 1984 together with its founder Ela Bhatt, is India's largest women's union.
All 2.9 million SEWA members belong to the informal sector – the 93 percent of Indian workers who have no social protection and are therefore most vulnerable to economic shocks. But now, says Reema Nanavaty, SEWA's director, climate shocks are further exacerbating workers' vulnerability.
Meera*, a garbage collector and recycling customer, is just one of the SEWA members Nanavaty has seen suffer the cruel consequences of the climate crisis. Meera starts her workday at 3am and is paid by the weight of the goods she collects, giving her the best chance of finding items that scrap dealers will buy.
But like millions of other women across the country, Meera has had to shorten her workday due to oppressive heat waves, leading to a drastic drop in her daily income. The consequences are devastating.
“They used to have three meals a day, now they can only have one,” said Nanavaty. Meera's suffering is reaching a level that no living being should endure.
Due to her reduced income, Meera could no longer afford the medication she needs to regulate her blood pressure. Desperate and without any decent alternatives, Meera turned to a moneylender.
“The moneylenders' terms mean that she may not be able to repay the money in cash,” Nanavaty said. “The result is that after she collects the garbage and sells it to the scrap dealer and prepares a meal for her family, she goes to work for the moneylender for the rest of the day. He may ask her to do any kind of work and very often he exploits her sexually and physically.”
Meera's inescapable reality confirms what climate activists have been saying for decades: the climate crisis is here, it's real, and it's killing us. And while rising sea levels and melting glaciers may seem abstract, the impacts of the climate crisis on Meera are painfully real.
“The worst thing about climate change is that it robs us of our dignity and self-respect. That is why there is an urgent need for climate justice,” Nanavaty said.
India is experiencing heat waves for the fourth year in a row. SEWA was early to consider how best to help its members. Among other initiatives, it decided to offer a heat insurance product that compensates members when extreme temperatures prevent them from working.
Earlier this summer, 50,000 SEWA members received a payout that will protect them from the horrific consequences experienced by women like Meera. For Sarla, a salt worker, the money couldn't have come at a better time.
“She lives and works in the desert, under the open sky and in the earth, for eight to nine months of the year,” said Nanavaty. “During the heatwave, her food went rancid. Still, she could not return to her village because she would have lost the entire year's work. That's when she received the payment.”
For Sarla and the tens of thousands of others who received the heat insurance payment, the money ultimately made the difference between life and death.
Sarla's top priority was to keep her family alive. She bought a cooler to cool down their almost boiling drinking water and ensure they got enough fluids. Nanavaty explained, “She said if we were alive, we could do everything else.”
Before the heat insurance compensation, Sarla was unable to pay her son's school fees and was willing to take him out of school. The payout ensured that he could continue to attend school. She used the rest of the money to pay off her monthly loan at the bank, thus staying away from loan sharks like the one who abused Meera.
“I think that’s what resilience is about: being able to get back on her feet and continue her life with dignity and self-respect,” Nanavaty said.
As Nanavaty makes clear, if powerful countries, corporations and financial institutions refuse to take systematic action on the climate crisis, India's invisible killer will continue to stalk the most vulnerable. Meera and Sarla's realities prove that today's status quo is not neutral, but deadly.
“I think the most important lesson is that you have to learn and relearn together with the women,” said Nanavaty. “You have to accompany them on their journey.”
*All names have been changed to protect the privacy and identity of the people featured in this story.
