Over the weekend, many New Delhi residents breathed a sigh of relief: rain at last, on and off, and a little refreshment. After weeks of heat, with temperatures up to 44 degrees Celsius, that was welcome.
India’s capital is in one of three new regional ‘hotspots’ for extreme heat, Ministry of Science and Technology said: Researchers found in a study published last year that over the past half century, more and more heat waves have occurred in the northwest, the center and the southern center of the country. This development According to meteorologists, this is the result of climate change. Regarding the consequences, the ministry wrote that “because of the dense population and a society that relies on intensive outdoor labour, adaptation strategies for all layers of society must be looked at.”
After a day on the market, the fruit doesn’t look like anything anymore
The government study does not provide any examples, the researchers first focused on the capacities of official agencies to predict heat waves. In the state of Delhi, since 2019, when a climate change action plan was drawn up, color coded warnings issued† Last week, in which ‘code orange’ applied to ‘hot days’ on two days, everyone was advised to stay indoors as much as possible† But many inhabitants of the metropolis, people who are homeless or have to work outside, cannot follow that advice.
How do housekeeper Barna Mandal, handyman Jageshwar and fruit seller Ajub Khan survive the heat?
Thursday morning, June 16, 10:00 a.m
‘The hour over those hot pans is really the most tedious task in the summer’
In the chic residential area of Chittaranjan Park in the southeast of New Delhi it is 36 degrees, the wind chill is at least 5 degrees higher. Housekeeper Barna Mandal (40) points up past the building where she is being hired: “The sun has yet to turn here”. She’s on the ground floor porch – she’s already cleaned the apartment above in the previous two hours.
The first thing Mandal does when she starts in one of the rooms: turn off the ceiling fans. “Not a nice breeze, but otherwise the dust will be blown away. Then I’m sweeping for nothing,” she laughs from behind her mouth cap. Sweeping fluttered leaves across the back door sill with a broom, she pulls the cloth to her chin, wiping the sweat beneath her nose and upper lip with a variegated scarf. The garment is soaked on her neck.
Most homes in this neighborhood have at least one air conditioner installed. At home, in a slum less than a fifteen minute drive away, Mandal has fewer options for cooling. “My two girls are staying at home now that it’s summer vacation. They hold the door to our shared room open,” said the housekeeper, a single mother of three. “But we don’t even have a window yet, so there’s no circulation. During my work I get a few hours of respite.”
The outdoor area is on the side again, the broom can be in the corner. Mandal closes the back door and gives a firm tug on the curtains: the trick is to keep the sun’s rays from peeking in later in the day. She sinks into one of the spacious sofas in the living room. “Days like these make you weak. At night I lie awake from the heat. Sometimes I have to stop while working.”
There is no long break, because she also makes lunch for this family. She doesn’t want to say anything bad about her client, but says, wriggling with her hands: „The hour over those hot pans is really the most tedious task in the summer. It’s like I’m on fire myself.”
Thursday afternoon, June 16, 15:45 pm
‘Within five minutes I have worked myself up a sweat’
Outside, in a busy residential area, it is 43 degrees according to a weather app. A couple of construction workers are working on the top floor of a building with apartments. They breathe in jerky gulps and move lazily, as if the air has thickened into a viscous substance that clings to their skin. The apartment they have to renovate has been completely gutted. Two pigeons have settled on an old, broken air conditioner. While the men hack into a dividing wall, thick clouds of dust are released.
Experienced handyman Jageshwar (41) pulls his head away and gasps at what must pass for fresh air. “Blow out. Within five minutes I have worked myself up a sweat. Then I can wring out my shirt.” For over twenty years, Jageshwar, who comes from a small village in the state of Uttar Pradesh, has been hired for construction, painting and masonry work.
“I can’t afford to refuse anything, the customer decides.” Like Jageshwar, many day laborers gather in New Delhi every day at intersections and in the parking lots of ironmongers to pick up work. They carry their own tools with them, with no guarantee of a job – sometimes they wait hours in the sun.
Especially in the summer there is a lot to do outside, explains Jageshwar, as he leads the way in the stairwell. The flat roof also needs maintenance. “It will take me five to seven days to pour new cement here.” In the scorching sun, the building materials dry up quickly, including the layer of white paint that can be applied as sun protection.
There are white and blue water tanks on the surrounding roofs. Another summer job: “Because people want so much water, they remember to have the tank cleaned.” For that assignment, Jageshwar has to climb into the barrels, ‘very oppressive’.
How does he cool himself? He avoids water that is too cold: “Then your body starts to tilt. That is already having a hard time with the heat, too big a difference is not good.” Jageshwar and his colleagues have their own method. They wrap wet rags around their filled bottles to protect their drinking water from the sun. “That’s how people in the village, where they don’t have a refrigerator, do it too.”
Tuesday evening 14 June 20:10 pm
‘Feel the apples, bruised. And the mangoes shriveled in the heat’
The evenings hardly bring any cooling; on a message board along the arterial road to the south, the reading of 37 degrees flashes. When the scorching sun is gone, New Delhi glows. The heat of the day rises from the asphalt. “Feet off the ground,” Ajub Khan (34) advises, “and sleep on the cart.”
Khan and his cousin Ulfad (38) – the family is from Uttar Pradesh, women and children live there – have a fruit stall near the Okhla Mandi market. There are a dozen stalls with wholesale fresh products on the hard shoulder. “All the fruit is from today,” the youngest cousin insists to a customer. After being displayed under a plastic roof for a day, his wares “look like nothing,” he says. Khan holds the fruit in his hands: “Feel the apples, bruised. And the mangoes have shriveled in the heat.”
The fruit is under colored LED lights to hide the bruised spots. It is regularly sprayed with water for an alluring shine. The mangoes cost only half at the end of the day, under these circumstances they can no longer be sold a day later. This year the cousins received a crop that was of lower quality than they are used to, probably due to the heat from the end of March.
In the air hangs the sickly, oppressive smell of withering fruit. The stall will be open for another two hours. “It is good for poor people that we lower the price. And they know that fruit is important, that’s how a person stays hydrated,” says Ulfad, who himself felt the toll of the sweltering heat today. He tries not to worry too much about the products, because anyway: “We always have to buy a fixed amount from the wholesaler, regardless of the yield from the orchards. Ultimately, we have no choice.”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of June 21, 2022
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