India, Nov. 25 -- The summers of 2024 and 2025 have brought some of the harshest heatwaves in India's recent history. In many northern and central cities, the heat index climbed above 50degC, according to press releases from the India Meteorological Department. The burden of this climate reality is not only borne by crops, power grids, or urban residents-it is being carried, quite literally, by the workers who keep our cities moving. Delivery riders, cab drivers, sanitation staff, and app-based service providers have become the invisible shock absorbers of India's climate crisis, working through blistering afternoons so others can remain indoors.

The distress among gig workers is no longer anecdotal. Reports from June 2024 documented mul...