NEW DELHI – Mrs Lataben Solanki, a homemaker, sells women’s undergarments from a pushcart at a busy market in Ahmedabad whenever she can. She makes about 3,000 rupees (S$40.50) a month when business is good, giving her family’s earnings a much-needed boost.

During summers, however, when temperatures in the western Indian state of Gujarat often exceed 40 deg C, her earnings are halved because it is too hot to be out in the open.

“I can put out my cart only after 6pm,” the 44-year-old said. “Even customers don’t step out because of the heat.”

Her experience mirrors that of many daily wage workers in India whose earnings decline during periods of extreme heat, which is becoming more frequent and raising concerns about climate-induced economic losses affecting their already vulnerable livelihoods.

But for the past three years, Mrs Solanki has had a safety net to fall back on: a heat insurance programme that partially compensates informal women workers for income lost on days too hot for them to go out and work.

Since 2024, Mahila Housing Trust (MHT), an Ahmedabad-based grassroots development organisation, together with its partners, including insurance providers and funding agencies, has offered a parametric heat insurance policy to protect informal women workers from income loss during extreme heatwaves.

The women pay a subsidised premium of 90 rupees for four months of coverage that would otherwise cost under 400 rupees.

The insurance covers the hottest months of April to July each year. Each time a predetermined temperature threshold is breached during this period, the women receive a payout. The total payout, however, is capped at 2,000 rupees.

The insurance programme has grown to cover around 30,800 women in various districts of Gujarat in 2026 and is being expanded to other parts of the country, launching in Delhi and the adjoining cities that make up the National Capital Region (NCR) on May 4. It will also be rolled out in parts of Maharashtra later in 2026.