New Delhi: Every alternate morning, 40-year-old Ranjita sets out from her residence in Raghubir Nagar, buys vessels and plastic consumer goods from a neighbourhood shop, wraps them in a huge piece of cloth to carry them on her head, and walks to the nearest bus stop. At around 10 am, she boards a bus to either Tagore Garden, Karol Bagh, Dwarka or Noida to sell them door-to-door, in exchange for used clothes.Ranjita walks through the day under the scorching heat. Her work typically ends at 6 pm. She reaches home an hour later, physically exhausted, and starts her domestic chores, including cooking. She then has her first meal of the day.The next morning, she wakes up early to reach a local market that operates from 4 am to 9 am to sell the clothes she had collected the previous day.For over two decades, Ranjita’s life has revolved around this routine. This year, she was forced to take a two-month break in May and June. “It is too hot. I have high blood pressure, bouts of dizziness and frequent headaches,” she says.Ranjita is part of India’s informal sector, which according to the government, contributed about 45% to India’s gross domestic product in 2022-23. India defines the unorganised sector as enterprises “owned by individuals or self-employed workers and engaged in the production or sale of goods or providing service of any kind whatsoever”, and where an enterprise employs less than 10 workers.More than 90% of India’s workforce is engaged in the informal sector, according to a 2025 policy paper from the IZA – Institute of Labor Economics, Germany. Informal workforce includes domestic workers, home-based workers, contributing family workers, casual day labourers, construction workers, street vendors. It also includes workers in the formal sector lacking social security benefits provided by employees.In this third of a five-part series examining India’s labour codes and climate risks for women workers, we look at India’s street vendors and construction workers. Street vendors are considered self-employed and fall outside many worker protection systems, while many construction workers on small sites are not eligible for protections. India’s experience with construction worker welfare also shows that access is low, as we explained earlier. As a result, these workers remain exposed to risks from heat and extreme weather.Overall, India has about 70 million construction workers and 16.5 million street vendors.Every summer, millions of Indians in informal work lose incomes to extreme heat, as ISignal reported in February 2026. They work slower, take unpaid sick days, or stop work entirely when temperatures become unbearable. They have no paid leave, no air-conditioned workplaces, and no financial buffer.We have reached out to the Ministry of Labour and Employment as well as state labour departments in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi for comment. We will update this report when we receive a response.What the Codes missKingshuk Sarkar, professor and chair for general management and public policy at Goa Institute of Management College, explains that climate protections are important given the nature of informal work. It is characterised by low pay, long hours, lack of social and job security, and sometimes dangerous and unhealthy working conditions, according to a 2025 paper published in Discover Global Society. It notes that more women than men are found to be without social security benefits, adding that informal employment exacerbates socioeconomic vulnerabilities, particularly among women.“People in coastal areas working in fisheries could lose their livelihoods due to climate events,” Sarkar says. “In the urban informal sector, people working outdoors like construction workers or street vendors are on the receiving end of the climate change phenomenon.”Under the Code on Wages, 2019, all workers in the organised and unorganised sector are entitled to minimum wage fixed by states and Union territories, but their incomes remain precarious, we found.A 2024 letter published in Environmental Research by researchers from the Institute of Economic Growth and the Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi, cites a 2019 study of nearly 400 workers in two Delhi slums, finding that on average, workers saw their net earnings drop by 40% on heatwave days. With every degree celsius increase in wet bulb temperature, they were 6 percentage points more likely to be sick themselves or have a family member sick, and 2 percentage points less likely to go to work. At the same time, medical expenditure rose by 15 percentage points with every degree celsius increase in wet bulb temperature.New Delhi’s Raghubir Nagar is home to many street vendors. Like Ranjita, they trade vessels for used clothes, are exposed to heat and extreme weather, and cannot afford to miss work. Photo: Rohini Krishnamurthy.“All informal workers are outside the OSH code,” explains Sarkar, referring to the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions or OSH code. This code only applies to establishments where “ten or more workers are employed”, as we explained in the first part of this series.The Codes also do not compensate informal workers exposed to extreme heat, unlike formal workers, as we explained in the second part of this series. The Code on Social Security, 2020 has listed diseases due to extreme heat and cold as occupational diseases. This means employers are liable for compensation for diseases that result from workplace exposures and hazards.The Union or state government, by notification, could bring informal workers within the scope, explains Farzana Afridi, professor of economics at the Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi.Indranil Mukhopadhyay, professor at the School of Government and Public Policy, O.P. Jindal Global University, says the government should strengthen publicly available healthcare for unorganised workers.For now, unorganised workers have access to publicly funded health insurance in India such as under the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana, which provides health insurance cover to the poor households and the informal sector workforce. But it only covers conditions requiring secondary or tertiary care hospitalisation or day care.New social security schemesThe Code on Social Security, 2020 states that the Union government will be responsible for framing suitable welfare schemes on life and disability cover, health and maternity benefits, old age protection, education, and any other benefit for unorganised workers.It also adds that state governments will take charge on schemes related to provident fund, employment injury benefit, housing, educational schemes for children, skill upgradation of workers, funeral assistance, and old age homes.In 2021, the Ministry of Labour and Employment launched the e-Shram portal to create a centralised national database of unorganised workers to help them in skilling, finding jobs and checking their eligibility for social security schemes. The portal also assigns a Universal Account Number (UAN) to each worker.e-Shram is integrated with 15 schemes of different ministries and departments such as Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana or PMJJBY (provides life insurance cover to unorganised workers of Rs 2 lakh on payment of premium of Rs 330 per annum) and Ayushman Bharat –Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana or PM-JAY (provides a cover of up to Rs 5 lakh per family, per year, for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation at public and empanelled private hospitals) to enhance social security coverage to unorganised workers.As per the ministry, e-Shram has recorded about 320 million registrations, as on September 23. But, benefits are not uniformly accessible.For example, Itwai Shah, a 41-year-old construction worker based in Delhi, has an e-Shram card but does not know its purpose. “Many people told me that I’ll get benefits if I register for e-Shram. I got nothing,” he says.Dharmanagar: Women labourers work at a brick kiln on the eve of the International Women’s Day, in Dharmanagar, Tripura, Friday, March 7, 2025. Photo: PTI.Harshita Sinha, senior research fellow at the International Institute of Migration and Development (IIMAD), an independent, interdisciplinary research institute, explains that registration alone does not help. “e-Shram only gives you a UAN number. The onus is massively on the worker to get access to social security such as insurance, pension, healthcare,” she adds.The Code on Social Security, 2020 subsumes nine laws, including the Unorganised Workers Social Security Act, 2008, which stipulated the creation of national and state-level Social Security Boards to recommend schemes for unorganised workers.The 2008 Act was a landmark in recognising unorganised workers but had weak institutional design, ineffective registration mechanisms, and lacked a provision mandating employer liability, according to a 2026 paper published in the Indian Journal of Legal Review. The paper adds that the new Code contains ambiguous definitions, voluntary nature of most benefits, lack of financing, and enforcement mechanisms.Sinha says that India’s laws lack a monitoring and accountability framework. As part of her PhD research, she has compared migrant workers’ access to social security in Delhi and Kerala. Though her research shows that informal migrant workers in Kerala have more access to social protection compared to Delhi, the kind of access and tangible benefits workers get are still restricted.ISignal spoke with different categories of informal workers to understand the impact of heat on livelihood and health and also document how working conditions, minimum wages and access to social protection affect their ability to cope with climate impacts.Construction workersBaby, 50, is also a construction worker, who finds work with her husband. The couple work for 15 days a month, with her husband making Rs 500 a day and Baby earning Rs 400. Their total monthly income is Rs 13,500. “We work 8-9 hours a day. Our income is not enough to lead a decent life,” Baby says, adding that they do not get paid extra for overtime.Itwai Shah, who moved to Delhi from Bihar, has been working in the construction sector for 15 years. His wife, 38-year-old Ruby Devi, joined this line of work about six years ago to support the family. The couple get work through a contractor or at a labour chowk and find work for 20-25 days a month. Shah is involved in plastering work and earns Rs 600 a day, while his wife makes Rs 350 a day mixing cement. Considering 25 days of work, they together earn Rs 23,750 a month.Women are typically engaged in low-skill work, assisting by moving bricks and other construction materials, preparing mixtures, collecting debris and throwing it away, and sweeping the construction site. They also earn less than their male counterparts. Baby, who has been working in construction for 30 years, has seen no change in her work profile.Many tasks which typically employ women are increasingly getting automated. “It has become harder for women to sustain in the construction sector,” Saloni Mundra, executive at Aajeevika Bureau, a nonprofit, says.Women constitute a smaller share of the construction workforce – in 2023-24, women accounted for 7.6 million of the total construction workforce of 68 million, according to an August 2026 report – but the sector remains “a significant non-agricultural livelihood option for rural women, especially from the Scheduled Tribe (ST) and other marginalised communities”.Adding to the already existing vulnerability is extreme heat. Summers make life particularly challenging. Both Ruby Devi and Baby experience frequent headaches, dizziness and body aches.“I manage to get some rest when the contractor is not present. If he finds us resting, he shouts at us,” Baby says. Workers have access to drinking water, although cool water is not available during summer. Shah complains that there are no separate washrooms for men and women at the work site.Mundra, along with Bandhkam Sankalan Samiti, audited 60 construction sites in Ahmedabad in April 2026 and found that only eight had some water arrangements such as storing in earthen pots to keep water cool. “One site had a water cooler but that was not enough to cater to the needs of 500 workers,” she says.Rules under the OSH Code say that, to protect construction workers from the risk of metabolic heat produced during work or from direct exposure to sunlight and high outdoor air temperatures, “a work-rest cycle for exposed employees, preferably in a shaded, cooler resting space shall be provided to allow the employee to recover”. It also mandates employers to take preventive steps such as providing training to detect early signs of disorders, supply of appropriate protective equipment and clothing, routine medical surveillance and drinking water and electrolytes.While employers of every factory and beedi and cigar work industrial premise are mandated to take adequate and sufficient measures to protect employees from extreme weather conditions by changing working hours, this provision is absent for building or construction workLocal heat action plans can help. Both Delhi’s (2025) and Ahmedabad’s Heat Action Plan (2019) for instance, encourage employers to shift outdoor workers’ schedules away from peak afternoon hours (1 pm to 5 pm) during heat alert.Working hours appear to rarely change. “There is no regulatory framework and rescheduling working hours is not mandatory,” explains Mundra. Of the 60 sites in Ahmedabad they audited, Mundra found only two sites stopped outdoor work during peak hours.Then, there are exclusions within the Code on Social Security, 2020. Building and construction work does not include sites employing less than 10 workers in the preceding 12 months. It also excludes work related to residential purposes of an individual or group of individuals, where the total cost of such work does not exceed Rs 50 lakh. “If this narrow definition is applied, many workers could be excluded from social security,” estimates Subhash Bhatnagar, social worker at Nirmana, a nonprofit based in Delhi.The National Campaign Committee for Central Legislation on Construction Labour has filed a petition against this exclusion in the Delhi High Court. Chirayu Jain, an advocate representing the Committee in this case, says that even the most skilled construction workers may not always find work at larger sites. “There could be occasions in a year or so where people work at smaller sites. This means the workers’ rights under the social security code would constantly be under threat,” he says.The Code says that to provide social security, the government will collect a cess of 1-2% of the cost of construction. An officer authorised by the Building Workers’ Welfare Board (a statutory body set up in every state and is responsible for providing welfare) will register every building worker aged between 18-60 engaged in any building or other construction work for not less than 90 days during the preceding year as a beneficiary. But sites routinely see workers below and above this age group, leading to exclusions.The Code subsumes the Building and Other Construction Workers’ (Regulation of Employment and Condition of Service) Act (BOCW Act), 1996. Under the Act, every state government had to constitute a BOCW Welfare Board.Women labourers, carrying their children, work at a brick kiln factory. Photo: PTI.Of India’s 70 million construction workers, as of June 2024, around 57 million workers were registered with BOCW welfare boards of various states & UTs across the country. “It is unclear whether building or construction workers registered with BOCW should have to register again under the new code,” says Shyam Sundar, former professor at XLRI – Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur.Baby has not heard about the BOCW Act or the benefits she is expected to receive under the Act.Registering alone, however, is one part of the story. “Registration does not guarantee any benefit. First, workers need to be registered for a duration of time and need to renew their registration every year. They then need to show all documentation,” Sinha says.“The onus to a great extent falls on the informal worker. They pay massive costs, financial and administrative burden,” she says.A report of the Standing Committee on Labour, presented in Parliament in July 2018, found that about 25% of the welfare cess collected since 1996 was spent, and more than half the states spent less than 25% of their collected funds, as ISignal explained in April 2019.Then, there is the question of inter-state migrant workers. “Many construction workers are migrant workers. The OSH Code says that inter-state migrant surveys will be conducted. Nothing has been initiated,” says Sundar.The Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Services) Act, 1979, which has been subsumed in the OSH Code, asked the employer to maintain registers and records on inter-state migrant workers, the nature of work performed, and the rates of the wages paid.Central OSH Rules ask the employer to furnish details to the Union government on statistics of inter-state migrant workers and their occupational safety and health, electronically on a web portal. It also states that the Union government “may” identify studies to be carried out to promote safety, health and welfare of inter-state migrant workers.While the OSH Code is applicable to every establishment in which 10 or more inter-state migrant workers, the earlier law had a threshold of five workers.Street vendorsFor street vendors sitting in the Karol Bagh market, finding shade is a problem. “I sometimes leave my products and take shade under a tree across the road,” 45-year-old Sunita (name changed) says. She earns Rs 300-600 a day in summers and in cooler months, Rs 1,000-1,500.Meena Devi, on the other hand, comes only after 3 pm in the summer. “My income has dropped,” the 48-year-old says. Both vendors say they carry their own bottles as there is no drinking water supply in the market. Neither has heard about the PM SVANidhi scheme, launched by the government in 2020 to provide collateral-free loans to vendors.“Rama Devi, a 38-year-old from Raghubir Nagar, has been a street vendor since 2006. Her husband is also a street vendor. Together, they earn Rs 7,000-8,000 a month. “We earn less during summers. We also lose income when it rains,” she says. They also struggle to find clean toilets.The couple live in a rented house and pay Rs 5,000 every month. They do not have a ration card, increasing their expenditure. “We barely have savings. Sometimes, we borrow provisions from other people and take debts to make ends meet,” she says.Ranjita, too, faced the same problem. She has been trying to get a ration card for over eight years. “I have visited the government office multiple times. I spend Rs 20 per trip. I could have used that money to buy atta (wheat flour),” she says, adding that she can feed her three children only once a day.Rama Devi has secured a loan of Rs 20,000 under the PM SVANidhi scheme. “The loans have helped me buy vessels for door-to-door vending,” she says. As of July 2026, government data show, about 7.7 million street vendors received more than 11.5 million loans.There are 16.5 million people working as street vendors. A 2026 survey of 17 vendor locations in Delhi by WIEGO found that 96% of the vendors saw a drop in customers and 90% had reduced the number of working hours due to extreme heat, as ISignal explained in April 2026. Further, more than 70% of workers lacked access to clean water, shade and toilets.Some 79% reported seeking medical attention for heat-related illnesses and nearly 40% saw an increase in debt. It also highlighted that women took on more debt than men.“Men probably have more access to social capital and are able to borrow from friends. But women’s access to capital through networks and family support might be relatively lesser as opposed to male members,” Arvind Unni, urban practitioner and policy researcher, and one of the authors of the survey, says. “While loans [through PM Svandhi] work when you have to start a business, we will have to figure out ways of providing some sort of compensation when vendors face losses,” he adds.According to Sarkar, street vendors are considered self-employed. “They might be running a business, but are not ‘entrepreneurs’. These vendors suffer when there is water-logging, intense heat, storm, cyclone. They lose their livelihood,” he says. “Yet, they do not get minimum wage. Their working conditions are not regulated. Instead, they often face eviction risk,” he adds.Sometimes, vendors are punished for putting up shade. “Because shade is not recognised as a right for street vendors and are being punished for even putting up a covering,” explains Unni. “The labour laws and heat action plans should include the whole dimension of the city because their vending happens in a city, in sidewalks or pavements or any other public space,” he adds.This story was first published on ISignal, an award-winning initiative that uses data and evidence to tell stories.This is the third of a five-part series examining India’s labour codes and climate risks for women workers. You can read the first part here and the second part here.