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

Workers are increasingly struggling to recover from heat across Asia as temperatures rise. Rickshaw drivers cool down in New Delhi last week. Photograph: Manish Swarup/AP

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.”