Caste and Occupational Exposure to Heat Waves in India

Synopsis: 

India is a leading global hotspot for extreme heat waves induced by climate change. In this paper, the authors investigate the association between heat stress exposure because of outdoor work during the 2019 and 2022 heat waves in India and the caste identity of the person performing the work. The rationale for this is driven by the association between India’s caste hierarchy and the occupations that people practice – recent research continues to suggest that caste plays an important role in India’s modern market economy. The authors combine data from the Periodic Labor Force Survey (a large nationally and regionally representative survey with rich socioeconomic and demographic information on more than 100,000 individuals), with high spatio-temporal resolution information on the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI).  

The authors find that the increase in exposure to stressful outdoor heat conditions during heat waves for every additional hour spent working is greater for marginalized caste groups as compared to other caste groups. For instance, the rate of increase in exposure for additional work is between 25%-150% greater for individuals from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for a range of UTCI thresholds that can be considered stressful to work in. The analysis controls for other economic-demographic confounders, including age, gender, education, and economic status, besides political-geographic controls and fixed effects. The robust evidence provided in the paper for the association between caste identity and exposure to heat stress shows why adaptation and mitigation plans in India must account for the division of labourers along caste lines rather than the mere division of labour. Methodologically, the analysis demonstrates the utility of pairing satellite imagery and detailed demographic data.