Extreme heat stress: This year, jackets were packed away by mid-February. On February 16, 2026, the maximum temperature in the capital region touched 31°C. Summer arrived early. Step into the sun and the heat feels abrasive within minutes. For those who work outdoors for a living, that discomfort is not occasional. It is the workday itself. Food delivery workers, two-wheeler riders, courier staff and other gig workers must stay on the road through punishing heat because their income depends on it.
India is facing more frequent and intense heatwaves. According to a 2022 World Bank report, about 75% of India’s workforce, or 380 million people, is engaged in heat-exposed labour. Climate change is therefore not just an environmental challenge. It is an economic shock, and gig workers are absorbing a disproportionate share of its cost.
READ | Extreme heat costs mount as India delays counting losses
Heat stress and labour productivity
In macroeconomics, labour productivity is a central driver of growth. That assumption rests on workable conditions. Extreme heat breaks it. The International Labour Organisation has estimated that heat stress will erode working hours globally, with India among the worst affected. For India, the projected loss is equivalent to millions of full-time jobs. The result is straightforward: lower effective labour supply, lower output per worker and weaker productivity growth.
At a broader level, the World Bank has estimated that rising heat and humidity could put up to 4.5% of India’s GDP at risk by 2030 through lost labour hours. This is a productivity shock with macroeconomic consequences.
Extreme heat weakens consumption
India’s economy relies heavily on private consumption, which accounts for nearly 57.5% of GDP. Consumption, in turn, depends on steady income. Extreme heat disrupts that link. Informal workers can lose up to 40% of their income during heatwaves because they work fewer hours and their productivity falls. Gig workers often have little savings and a high propensity to spend out of current income. Any fall in earnings therefore translates quickly into lower consumption.
This is why climate-related labour disruption is not only a supply-side problem. It also weakens demand. When outdoor workers lose income, the effect is felt both in lost output and in reduced spending.
READ | Heatwaves and ageing: India’s silent mortality burden
The gig economy’s heat trap
NITI Aayog’s 2022 report projected that India’s gig workforce would rise from 7.7 million in 2020-21 to 23.5 million by 2029-30. Yet this expanding workforce still operates without fixed working hours, reliable health protection or meaningful income security. Formal employees can step back during extreme weather. Most gig workers cannot.
The problem is sharpened by platform management systems. Algorithms are designed to maximise efficiency, not to recognise physical limits. They can measure delivery time, but they cannot register what 45°C heat does to the human body. When a worker slows down to avoid heat exhaustion, the system can read that as poor performance. Ratings fall. Incentives weaken. Breaks become costly.
There is also an incentive structure that pushes workers to remain on the road during the hottest hours. Workers may be penalised for rejecting orders even when conditions are unsafe. In effect, platforms transfer climate risk to workers while maintaining pressure to perform.
Heatwaves, health costs and inequality
A 2024 survey by the Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers found that more than half of gig workers reported symptoms of heat exhaustion or heatstroke, while over 40% lacked access to clean drinking water during work hours. That captures the reality of outdoor platform work in a heatwave: little employer responsibility, weak safety protection and no reliable insurance cushion.
Climate change does not affect all workers equally. Formal workers are more likely to be in enclosed and cooled workplaces. Informal and gig workers are directly exposed to extreme weather. The gap in working conditions widens the gap in productivity and income.
The economic burden goes beyond lost work hours. Heat exposure causes dehydration, fatigue, heatstroke and reduced cognitive performance. These affect present productivity and future earning capacity. Gig workers do not have paid sick leave. At the same time, rising temperatures increase household spending on water, cooling and treatment. One study has found that medical expenditure rises by 14% with every degree increase in temperature. For low-income workers, that means a double squeeze: falling income and rising costs.
The long-term effect is human capital erosion. Workers lose not just wages, but health, workdays and earning potential. Those least responsible for emissions end up carrying the heaviest economic burden.
India’s policy gap on gig worker protection
India has begun to recognise the problem, but the policy response remains weak. The National Disaster Management Authority issued heat guidelines in 2025 recommending suspension of work during peak hot hours from 11 am to 4 pm. But these remain advisory, not enforceable. The Code on Social Security, 2020, recognises gig workers, and the e-Shram portal has registered more than 31.38 crore unorganised workers, including over 5 lakh gig workers. Yet recognition has not translated into reliable protection.
Implementation is patchy. Access to benefits is inconsistent. Many workers registered on e-Shram still struggle to claim entitlements. Platform companies continue to externalise environmental risk by making workers bear the costs of fuel, vehicle maintenance and health stress. That is the gap in India’s labour policy: recognition without enforcement.
READ | Heatwaves may force firms adopt temperature‑linked P&Ls
What labour policy must do
India’s gig economy is often presented as a symbol of innovation. But an economy that runs on human endurance under extreme heat is fundamentally fragile. A serious response requires policy in six areas.
First, labour ministries must set legally enforceable temperature-linked work limits, rest periods and safety standards for outdoor gig work.
Second, social protection must cover heat-related illness and income loss during extreme weather. Health insurance and emergency support cannot exclude the risks most relevant to outdoor workers.
Third, registration alone is not enough. Workers need structured support to understand and claim the benefits attached to government schemes.
Fourth, public infrastructure matters. Cities need hydration points, shaded rest areas, cooling spaces and greener urban design for outdoor workers.
Fifth, platforms must be required to reform algorithmic management during heat events. Performance penalties should be suspended and delivery timelines adjusted when temperatures cross safe thresholds. Incentive design should not push workers into hazardous conditions.
Sixth, platform accountability must go beyond rhetoric. Companies should provide heat kits, protective gear and some degree of income support, instead of shifting the entire burden of climate risk onto workers.
Heat cost is an economic cost
An economy that depends on people working through dangerous heat without protection is not resilient. As India moves towards its Viksit Bharat 2047 goal, it must recognise that heat stress is not only a burden on workers. It is a drag on productivity, consumption, public health and long-term growth.
Protecting gig workers from extreme heat is therefore not just a welfare measure. It is part of building a climate-resilient labour market and a more durable economy.
Riya Srivastava is a student, and Dr Reeta Tomar Assistant Professor at CHRIST University, Delhi NCR Campus.