Social Protection

Excess heat emerged as an influential element in recent weather communication about India. Drawing insight from scholars, who have expressed the need to examine the commodification and communication of scientific research, we argue that ‘heatwave’ reportage derived from ‘fast event attribution’ seek to make climate science, usable for businesses and public policy making. We show that central to recent policy documents, that focus on heat, is advocacy for the structural transformation of national economies by shifting labour from agriculture and construction to services. The classification of labour as ‘outdoor’ and ‘indoor’, in heat-policy, reduce the responsibilities of governments from providing comprehensive social protection to disadvantaged working population to: warnings and advisories and bio-surveillance of working and migrant populations. Climate knowledge produced and disseminated in this form individualizes risk and diminishes public responsibility towards the protection of least advantaged groups. Such translations raise concerns for climate justice as they displace enriched understandings of human-environment relationships that should underpin environmental governance and social policy.

As the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, women migrant workers were placed at a distinct disadvantage. Millions of women workers in labour-intensive occupations, from domestic work to construction lost their jobs, while also shouldering the responsibility of caregiving. This study draws on in-depth interviews with women workers in Delhi to document their life and experiences in the aftermath of the national lockdown in 2020. It brings to light a range of challenges around food security, caregiving, income security, and social protection. It documents the impact of existing inequalities of gender, migration status, and class on access to support, which has implications on the long-term repercussions of the current economic crisis.