No Shade, No Rest: Stories from Pune’s Streets

Aditi Singh । Pune's summer arrived early, with an unseasonal surge in temperatures seen in March that only intensified through April. It is mid-month and the city is already simmering, with Lohegaon in Pune recording a searing 43 degrees Celsius on April 17, the hottest day of the season so far. While the weather department has issued advisories, deterring people from stepping out during hot afternoons, that option is not available for many, mainly the workers who have their livelihoods on the streets. However, do these workers, instrumental in the building and functioning of cities like Pune, get infrastructural support to face rising temperatures?

Sushil, a construction worker on a site near Kharadi, starts his day long before sunrise. By the time the sun shines overhead, the concrete and bricks around him are radiating heat from every direction. His bottle holds warm water that he carried from home. Yet, he keeps working, driven by the need to put food on the table.

“We do not have a choice,” he says. “We either work or go hungry.”

On many such sites, workers eat lunch crouched under their own shirts, covering their heads with torn gamchas (cloth pieces) or plastic sheets to shield themselves from the harsh sunlight however they can.

Pune has already seen multiple spells of extreme heat this year, with March recording the highest average maximum temperature in over a decade. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) stated the temperatures have remained well above normal, and the city is currently under a heatwave warning from April 16 to 21, with highs expected to stay between 39 Degrees Celsius and 42 Degrees Celsius.

Sadanand, a middle-aged autorickshaw driver, begins his shift before breakfast. “The earlier I start, the better,” he says. “Afternoons are unbearable.”

Though he is grateful that his rickshaw has a roof, even that is not enough anymore. “Earlier, we used to park under trees when we needed to rest. Now, with all the new buildings coming up, they are cutting them down. There is barely any shade left. When we stop to rest, the autos heat up from inside. It is like sitting in a hot box.”

During breaks, Sadanand steps outside to splash water on his face or finds corners of the city where trees remain, but these corners are shrinking.

Still, amidst the heat and exhaustion, there is a sense of solidarity. “We auto drivers are like a community,” says Tanmay Kadam, another driver who works in the same area. “While we are waiting for passengers or taking breaks, we share water, food, whatever anyone has. Sometimes it is just helping someone get a passenger when their meter has been running low. The roadside hotels also help us by refilling our water bottles without question.” It is a quiet economy of care that thrives not because of, but in spite of, the systems around them.

_{Photo: Swayam Dingalwar (Representational Photo)}

Just a few kilometres away, on FC Road, Mandar sells soda out of a cart. His business runs best during the hottest hours of the day, when people crave something cold. But the same sun that brings him customers also sent his school-going son to the hospital two weeks ago with dehydration. Since then, he has asked his son to stop accompanying him, worried not just about the boy falling sick but also about him missing school. “I move my cart under whatever little shade I can find when the sun comes overhead,” he says.

Mandar’s struggle is far from unique. Across Indian cities, street vendors report health tolls under rising temperatures. A report by Greenpeace India and the National Hawker Federation showed that vendors in Delhi reported a rise in heat-related illnesses, such as dehydration, sunburns, headaches and fatigue that clings after the day is done. The health impacts are worse for women. According to the study, seven out of eight women vendors experienced high blood pressure, while many middle-aged women experienced disrupted menstrual cycles.

Rekha, who works as a domestic worker in Bavdhan, has structured her life around proximity. She lives close to the high-income societies where she works because they pay slightly better and it saves her the cost of public transport. But even then, the walk from home to work each morning feels longer than usual in the summer sun. “I walk slowly, but it still tires me out,” she says.

Her family owns two umbrellas—one goes with her children to school and the other with her husband. There is none left for her. “So I walk in the sun,” she adds. The first thing she does after entering her first house of the day is ask for a glass of cold water. “That is when I feel a little better,” she says.

Photo: Swayam Dingalwar (Representational Photo)

Rekha’s experience is part of a broader truth that is becoming more apparent with each passing summer—working-class women in urban areas are among the worst hit by extreme heat. Many women, like Rekha, juggle paid work during the day and unpaid care at home in the evenings, cooking in poorly ventilated kitchens, taking care of children and fetching water when the supply is erratic. Homes in low-income settlements, often made of tin sheets, plastic tarps and asbestos roofing, trap heat throughout the day.

“These tin houses act like solar cookers, intensifying the heat inside,” says Professor Kavita Murugkar, Architect and Principal at Bharati Vidyapeeth College of Architecture. “There is a lot of research happening on how to build low-cost housing using heat-resistant materials and incorporating basics like windows and ventilation.” At her institute, she adds, they are working on prototypes that reimagine affordable housing to be more climate-resilient.

An increase in temperature also impacts the time it takes to get through daily chores. Reports like Scorching Divide by the Arsht–Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Centre show how heat waves cost women in India, who are already carrying the larger share of unpaid care work at home, an additional 90 minutes of unpaid labour each day.

According to the Asian Development Bank, heat has far-reaching implications for pregnant women, as with every one Degree Celsius rise in temperature, the risk of preterm births increases by six percent, rising to 16 percent during full-blown heatwaves. Stillbirths become five percent more likely with every degree. It becomes an additional vulnerability for pregnant women in homes without proper cooling or a consistent water supply.

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Across the city in Aundh, Priyanka, a homemaker, lives with the kind of everyday uncertainty that defines life for many in low-income neighbourhoods. “There is no proper water storage in our house. Water keeps coming and going, and if we complain, the landlord threatens to throw us out.”

She knows the days ahead are only going to get worse. “Right now, even this is better than being on the streets. But I am trying to look for another house. I do not think we can live like this when summer really hits its peak.”

Energy poverty is another reality of many households lacking basic appliances like fans or steady electricity to power them. Shikha, who works at a sweet shop in Karve Nagar, knows this all too well. She commutes daily on foot to work and spends hours next to stoves and steaming vessels. “There is no escape from heat, not at home, not at work,” she says. With no refrigerator at home, she fills a bottle with cold water from the shop every evening, hoping it stays cool long enough for her children to drink. “That is all I can do.”

For informal workers like Rekha and Shikha, there is no air-conditioned alternative. There are just hotter homes, hotter floors to scrub, and longer walks under the sun.

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As concrete and glass structures occupy more space in cities, the question of how we build, where and for whom has never mattered more. Murugkar emphasises that urban planning needs to move beyond just laying roads. “We must consciously prioritise greenery in our cities. Green pockets alongside footpaths, thoughtful use of materials and even colour choices can influence how much heat is absorbed. Vegetation is not just decoration, it absorbs heat and offers comfort for those working outdoors.”