‘My head spins with the heat’: India’s gig workers battle exhaustion amid soaring temperatures

Cities across south and south-east Asia are becoming places where informal workers can no longer recover from the heat

By the time Jalaj Jha begins getting ready for work each morning, he already feels drained. Awakening in a cramped room in Delhi, with no ventilation except a rattling fan pushing hot air around, the 24-year-old gig worker has ahead of him a 12-hour shift delivering groceries.

“I barely sleep three or four hours in this heat,” Jha said, wiping dust off his motorbike, which he uses for deliveries. “I wake up exhausted. It feels like my body is pulling me down.”