The early morning sun slants into the eyes of Hussain at Langar Houz labour adda as he scans the road in front of him for someone to hire him for the day.
Hussain is a day-labourer-for-hire who gets ₹900 if he gets lucky and is hired. “I am here by 7 a.m. and I usually get hired by 10 a.m. After that it becomes difficult. We take a lunch break between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.,” says Hussain who hails from Kodangal and stays in the neighbourhood.
Near the Fateh Darwaza of Golconda Fort, another batch of labourers await their fate for the day. The Indian Federation of Trade Unions has a function to mark the May Day. A group of workers stand around a flagpole and raise May Day slogans and about labour unity.
“When people hire workers they want their work to be done quickly. They don’t care about the heat or cold. If they get lucky they get work where it is shaded. Otherwise, they have no choice,” says T. Narayana, secretary of IFTU before he gets into an autorickshaw as he has to rush to 12 labour adda May Day functions.
Other workers relate the same experience of a one hour lunch break for wages ranging between ₹700 for women labourers to ₹900 for male workers and ₹1,200 for skilled workers. As the day temperatures top 45 degrees Celsius in most parts of the State, the workers have no choice but to work through the day.
According to the International Labour Organisation estimates, nearly 2.4 billion workers out of a workforce of 3.4 billion are likely to be exposed to excessive heat due to climate change. The ILO calculates that the proportion of workers exposed to excessive heat has gone up from 65.5% - 70.9% since 2000.
The impact of the heat and exposure is not limited to daily wage labourers but extends to delivery executives, cab and auto drivers and grocery delivery partners.
“The peak time for food delivery is lunch time, between 12 noon and 3.30 p.m. The delivery executives have to go about their work without thinking about the heat as it is majboori (no choice). They have to work. They cannot afford to stop work because of the heat,” says Shaik Salauddin of Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union.
“As we are a training institute, we have incorporated a session where labour leaders and officials are sensitised about the issue of climate change and how to mitigate the factors during the hottest part of daytime. We need to conduct more studies on this aspect,” said Arvind, Director-General of V.V. Giri National Labour Institute.
