‘I’m in hell’: How rising heat is amplifying India’s social divides

As intensifying climate conditions make work harder and more dangerous, many families ask how they will survive the ‘unbearable’ weather.

Patna, India — Satendra Kumar had been feeling unwell during the recent prolonged heatwave, sweating in his family’s one-room hut, but forced himself to go to work to repay the loan he had taken out for his daughter’s marriage. May 30, a Thursday, was particularly searing as he rode his bicycle to the workshop where he was employed as a carpenter in Aspura, 59km (37 miles) from Patna, the capital of Bihar state.

Once there, his health deteriorated, and Kumar asked his manager for a rare half-day off. On the way home, he lost consciousness under the scorching sun, falling off his bike less than 1km away from his home. By evening, his family’s frantic search for Kumar ended in a nearby government-run health centre, where he lay dead.

If you ask Suraj Kumar, 21, what killed his father, it was the “unbearable heat”. The doctor noted the same in their postmortem report.

“I’m leaving my studies and looking for a job now,” said Suraj, speaking at the family home. “The loan repayments are on me as well as the household expenses.”

Schools were ordered to shut and hospitals rushed to create “heat units” after temperatures in several areas of India’s north and south hovered around 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in May and June. The weeks-long heatwave killed more than 200 people and led to more than 40,000 suspected cases of heatstroke, according to data from India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Experts and climate activists say the deaths are likely to be higher as local authorities may not correctly attribute some to heat.

The effect of record-breaking heatwaves has