The climate blindspot in India’s new labour codes

India’s new labour codes, under which the government framed rules for implementation in May this year, do not once mention climate change. This is even as the past 11 years have been the warmest on record, and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent.

Experts say this blindspot leads to a lack of protections for workers. While one labour code does include guidelines for workplaces to tackle climate risks, definitions and minimum thresholds mean the majority of Indian workers in small firms and informal work are excluded from protection.

Women are particularly vulnerable to climate risks due to a combination of socioeconomic, cultural and occupational factors. In a four-part series, ISignal reviews the impact of heat and the lack of protections on women’s health and livelihoods. In this first part, we look at the legislative landscape and why exclusions exist.

The codes which came into effect on November 21, 2025 are:

1. the Code on Wages, 2019 (which covers minimum wages and timely payment);

2. the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 (which covers trade unions, conditions of employment, and industrial disputes);

3. the Code on Social Security, 2020 (which aims to extend social security to all employees and workers either in the organised or unorganised sector); and

4. the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions or OSH code, 2020 (which covers worker welfare, and registration and duties of employers).

On May 8, 2026, the Union government notified rules to implement the labour codes.

These codes replace 29 Union government labour laws, a consolidation which was—the government stated in the Compliance Handbook for Employers—necessary as India’s labour law framework had become complex over time, creating significant compliance burdens through multiple registrations, licences, and returns. “Evolving work patterns and new forms of employment underscored the need for a simpler and more coherent system,” the handbook adds.

“There is no explicit mention of climate change in the codes. This is unfortunate,” says Kingshuk Sarkar, professor and chair for general management and public policy at Goa Institute of Management.

Anjana Karumathil, associate professor of practice, organisational behaviour and human resources at Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, argues that climate should have been considered in the labour codes, because heatwaves and floods happening across our country directly impact labour force participation.

“Extreme weather events determine how productive labour is, how safe occupations are, and how much money people can make,” she explains.

Safe working conditions, and other provisions like paid sick leave, health insurance, maternity benefits, income support during climate disasters, access to cooling infrastructure, and bargaining power shield women workers from climate risks, says Vidhya Venugopal, a professor of occupational and environmental health at the Chennai-based Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research.

These measures can help prevent a bad heatwave from becoming a financial catastrophe for a woman worker. However, these protections do not apply to all workers under the new codes.

We have reached out to the Ministry of Labour and Employment as well as state labour departments in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Karnataka for comment. We will update this report when we receive a response.

Women’s vulnerability

Several barriers prevent many women from entering, remaining and progressing in paid work, according to the International Labour Organization. This is reflected in India’s labour force participation rate (LFPR), which is the share of persons working or looking for work as a percentage of total population in the particular age-group.

According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS 2025), 59.1% of men are in the labour force, nearly twice the LFPR of 30.7% among women. Childcare and household duties act as a major deterrent to women’s participation, accounting for 44.4% women out of the labour force compared to 0.5% of men.

Domestic responsibilities fall disproportionately on women. ISignal spoke with 15 women workers from both formal and informal sectors, most of whom do not get any assistance at home.

Unpaid caregiving responsibilities further limit a woman's ability to rest or seek protection from heat, especially during school closures or peak caregiving periods, a 2025 cross-section study by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation found.

Biologically, women lose less heat through sweating, have a higher working metabolic rate, and have thicker subcutaneous fat which limits their ability to cool themselves, according to a 2018 review published in GeoHealth.

Venugopal is also country director for the Centre on Environmental Change and Non-Communicable Diseases at the National Institute for Health and Care Research. Her 2024 study shows that women informal workers face a three-fold higher risk of heat-related illness and a 2.7-fold higher risk of reduced kidney function compared to men in similar heat conditions at workplaces.

Socioeconomic status, caste and culture also compound that risk. These include poor access to healthcare and cooling facilities, culturally prescribed heavy clothing, and nutritional scarcity due to prioritisation of food for children and men, according to the 2018 Geohealth review.

Then, there are occupational risks. “More women than men tend to dominate sectors that are low paying and highly exposed to climate-related risks such as agriculture, domestic work, home-based work,” says Karumathil, who works on emerging work systems, platform-based employment, and the design of organisational and institutional mechanisms for evolving labour markets.

A June 2026 report by NITI Aayog, citing a 2020 analysis by the US-based nonprofit International Center for Research for Women, states that 79% of women are concentrated in sectors such as agriculture, paid domestic work, manufacturing, education and health, while 21% of women worked in services. Of these sectors, agriculture and domestic work are characterised by low earnings and fewer skills. They also have a higher representation of casual and self-employed workers.

Within the agricultural sector, for instance, 63% of men operate as own-account workers or employers compared with 38.4% women, according to PLFS. In contrast, 41.1% women in the sector operate as ‘helpers in household enterprise’ compared with 19.2% men.

The share of women working in the manufacturing sector was around 11.7%. If more women were to access manufacturing jobs, output would rise by 9% in India, according to the World Bank. Even within manufacturing, 56.8% of male workers hold regular wage or salaried positions, compared to 19.4% of female workers.

Further, women’s presence is concentrated in select industries such as food products, textiles, apparel and tobacco manufacturing, according to a July 2025 policy brief from the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), which cites the Annual Survey of Industries 2022-23. The tobacco industry, which is “typically hazardous, with adverse health impact, poor working conditions and the possibility of addiction”, sees more women than men workers.

The textile industry, including apparel, is estimated to be directly employing more than 45 million people, and more than 50% are women workers. However, women dominate smaller enterprises in the lower tiers of the garment supply chain and often trail men in terms of equal pay for work of equal value, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).

“If the current legislation continues, all the additional vulnerability will continue to decrease women's participation in the workforce, which will further deepen the existing inequality in the labour market,” Karumathil warns.

Working conditions under OSH code

“The new Codes indirectly talk about climate risks through the OSH code,” says Sarkar. The OSH Code replaces 13 laws, including the Factories Act, 1948, which covers welfare needs of workers of factories.

However, the Code applies to “establishments” having 10 or more workers, with the definition including motor transport undertaking, newspaper establishment, audio-video production, building and other construction work or plantation, factory, or a mine or port. This threshold does not apply in the case of hazardous or life-threatening activity. “This is a stringent exclusion criterion,” Sarkar cautioned.

The Code states that the Union government “shall” declare standards for occupational safety and health concerning physical, chemical, biological and any other hazards. In comparison, it says the government “may” prescribe for providing on issues such as ventilation, temperature and humidity, potable drinking water, and prevention of overcrowding. The OSH rules do not prescribe standards, and task employers with maintaining health, safety and working conditions.

The Factories Act, 1948, in comparison, delegated the responsibility of setting standards for adequate ventilation and reasonable temperature to the states. Haryana’s Factories Rules, for example, mandated the maximum wet-bulb temperature of air in a work-room at a height of 1.5 metres above the floor level “shall not exceed 30°C”. Wet bulb temperature combines heat and humidity to show how effectively the body can cool itself through sweat (see ISignal’s explainer here for more).

Further, the OSH rules mandate the employer of every factory, mine, building or other construction work, industrial premise for manufacture of beedi and cigar, motor transport undertaking and dock work to ensure adequate standards to prevent overcrowding, and the rules require that employers ensure the floor space is not crowded with materials, machines or products, vehicle and pedestrian pathways are separated, and signs or symbols are designed and displayed to illustrate overcrowding hazards. The Factories Act, 1948, on the other hand, mandated a space of 9.9 cubic meters and 14.2 cubic metres (for factories built after the commencement of the Act) to be maintained for every worker.

The OSH rules, which were notified on May 8, 2026, mandate employers of every “factory” to maintain atmospheric conditions to avoid insufficient air supply, excessive heat or cold, and sudden variations in temperature. Employers of a “factory” are also asked to take adequate and sufficient measures to protect employees from extreme weather conditions by changing working hours, providing protective clothes and adequate supply of clean, wholesome and safe drinking water.

Only factories with 20 workers (or 40 workers, in factories without power) are covered in the definition—compared with the previous thresholds of 10 and 20 workers, respectively. This revision, according to the government, reduces compliance burden on smaller units. The labour ministry pointed to the threshold on ‘establishments’ to clarify that there will not be any dilution of protections.

However, Sarkar is not entirely convinced. “More factories become deregulated compared to pre-Code periods. A factory using power and having less than 20 workers would not attract provisions of the Factories Chapter [in the Code],” explains Sarkar.

Venugopal rues that preventive measures are largely absent in the new Codes despite strong evidence indicating that women in both indoor and outdoor occupations experience unsafe heat exposure. “Routine surveillance of workplace heat exposure barely exists, particularly in the sectors where most women work,” she added.

Chandni Singh, associate professor at Indian Institute for Human Settlements, finds the labour laws ill-equipped to help build climate resilience.

Still, some of these concerns could be addressed by states. Labour is a concurrent subject in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India. State labour departments must proactively enforce safety rules in small and mid-sized factories, Safe In India, a national non-profit organisation, recommended in its 2025 report.

“The state rules can be over and above the Central rules,” says Santosh Mehrotra, research fellow at the IZA Institute of Labour Economics in Germany. “In a vast country like India, we have mountainous regions, desert regions, coastal regions, and the Indo-Gangetic plain. States must respond to their particular requirements.”

ISignal reviewed the rules or draft rules for 36 states and Union territories. Most states do not have specific protections for women, except in the case of work during the nights, or for hazardous work.

None of the states specify a general temperature standard for the workplace. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu set a numerical maximum of 29°C, but only for compressed-air work, while some others are qualitative or process-specific standards. Ventilation is largely mentioned in the context of submitting plans.

Chandigarh’s rules acknowledge occupational heat exposure’s impacts on health and productivity, calling for monthly monitoring of heat stress, specifically in factories like induction furnace, arc furnace, foundries, working in open sun, or as directed by inspector cum facilitator. The rules also require monthly monitoring of core body temperature, urine specific gravity/ osmolality test (to measure the concentration of dissolved particles in the urine) and yearly kidney ultrasound test to check any renal anomalies.

No state calls for changing working hours in response to a heatwave or extreme weather. Chandigarh requires heat-related rest and hydration.

Many state rules talk about cool drinking water for a select group of factories that carry out specific work such as chemical works and employing 50 workers or more. Rajasthan says cool drinking water during hot weather will be provided in every factory that employs over 250 workers.

Rajasthan has a broad rule, noting that no room in any factory shall be overcrowded while Tamil Nadu holds the owner of the premises and the occupiers of the factories jointly responsible to prevent overcrowding.

Social security access

Given that climate change can lead to increased poverty and inequality, governments can use social protection as a policy tool to help people address risks linked to income and livelihoods, and to achieve societal outcomes such as reducing poverty and inequality, a 2023 study published in Climate Risk Management says.

The Code on Social Security, 2020 consolidates nine existing laws. The Code defines social security as measures of protection afforded to employees and workers to provide healthcare, income security, particularly in cases of old age, unemployment, sickness, invalidity, work injury, maternity or loss of a breadwinner.

It deals with mechanisms such as the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF), the Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), the National Social Security Board for Unorganised Workers, the State Unorganised Workers' Social Security Board, and the Building and other Construction Workers' (BOCW) welfare boards.

EPF covers establishments with 20 or more workers, whereas the provisions of ESIC apply to establishments employing 10 or more persons, except seasonal factories. EPF covers Employees’ Pension Scheme, deposit-linked insurance, etc. ESIC assists with benefits and medical treatment to insured persons and their families. Gratuity and maternity benefits are other components of social security.

For informal workers, the Code states that the Union government “shall” create welfare schemes that will include life and disability cover, health and maternity benefits, old age protection, education, etc. For gig and platform workers, the Code says the Union government “may” frame social security schemes related to life and disability cover, accident insurance, health and maternity benefits, old age protection, crèche.

“It is good that unorganised sector workers would also get social security. But I do not think it would be in terms of EPF, ESIC, gratuity or maternity. Social security schemes and institutional social security are quite different,” says Sarkar.

He explains that a formal woman worker can get 26 weeks of paid maternity leave and cannot be dismissed during the period, but for an informal worker, this does not apply. He, however, adds that the government may devise some schemes for informal workers but is unlikely to provide job security.

Further, broader social protection schemes like health insurance under the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (provides Rs 5 lakh health insurance per family per year) or life insurance under the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana are not specific to employment status, as well as welfare schemes like One Nation One Ration and Affordable Rental Housing Complexes also exist.

However, such schemes see implementation and awareness gaps, a 2025 report by the Indian Institute for Human Development found. A 2026 study published in Global Social Policy explains many workers lack access to them due to ineligibility, lack of awareness, or other registration obstacles. Even when workers are eligible, the bureaucratic registration process has often resulted in low uptake. Digital and institutional barriers are also other barriers, it adds.

None of these schemes help with protecting incomes for informal workers.

Why wage protection is important

The Code on Wages, 2019, prohibits gender discrimination in wages for the same or similar work performed by employees. This, however, is not new. The Code amalgamates four wages and payment related labour laws, including the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976, which states that every employer has to pay equal remuneration to men and women workers for the same work or work of a similar nature.

Still, women earn lower wages and this has a hidden cost. “Women’s climate risks are compounded by lower wages and limited workplace decision-making power,” Venugopal explains. For example, in the supply chain of the automobile sector, “women workers report earning less than their male counterparts for the same work”, explains Dhanraj B., senior manager, advocacy at Safe in India.

While men receiving regular wages or salary earned a monthly income of Rs 24,217, women got a 24% lower income at Rs 18,353, as per PLFS 2025. This disparity is also seen in casual labour, with men’s daily wage recorded at Rs 489, while women’s wages were 34% lower at Rs 324.

Within the informal sector, women engage in labour-intensive work such as domestic service, caregiving, street vending and home-based production.

A 2026 study from Social Sciences and Humanities Open, which surveyed 560 women across six districts in Kerala, found that despite 72% of the respondents working more than eight hours a day, only 15% earned above Kerala's informal sector minimum wage (Rs 450 a day in 2024). The average daily income of domestic workers was Rs 350 while that of a garment/home-based worker was Rs 280. Care workers reported the longest work hours (12 to 14 hours a day), often without breaks or overtime compensation.

For informal workers, the impacts are more acute. Heat exposure leads to lost earnings, illness and reduced productivity. “It is largely these workers and their households who bear these losses, absorbing them through borrowing, reduced consumption or delayed healthcare, with little compensation or protection,” a 2026 report by the International Institute for Environment and Development, an independent policy research institute, noted.

Climate change can impact a household’s living costs through multiple routes. Exposure to heat stress could lead to exhaustion or illness, resulting in loss of productivity and wages, according to a 2026 paper in Scientific Reports. Nearly all respondents (97%) in a survey of 3,300 women in vulnerable districts reported wage losses exceeding Rs 1,500 over the time period of April-June (peak summer months), according to the 2025 report by M S Swaminathan Research Foundation. Heat exposure could also raise health-related expenses.

When droughts or floods strike, agricultural output could drop, raising local food prices, reads a 2026 research article published in Ecological Economy. The study also explains that climate change causes a change in pattern of expenditure by altering a household’s nutritional needs, heating and cooling requirements, as well as clothing needs. This could mean higher electricity bills due to cooling needs and increased water consumption.

Dilution of enforcement

The ILO states that labour inspection plays a key role in promoting a safe and healthy work environment and, more generally, in attaining decent working conditions for all. Under the new Codes, Inspectors have become “Inspectors cum facilitators” to help employers comply with law, rules and regulations. The Codes also allow randomised web-based, algorithm-driven inspections.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment explained in a social media post that the change from Inspectors into Inspector-cum-Facilitators “eliminates unnecessary harassment by ensuring transparency through technology-driven and risk-based inspections”. It also added that surprise inspection would continue but based on risk indicators, complaints and specific authorisation.

Sarkar argues that the administrative dilution compromises the function of the inspector in its true spirit. He also pointed out that system-generated randomised inspections generate prior information that also goes to the employer. Though a random inspection might happen in case of complaints or specific authorisation, a majority of inspections would be system-generated, he added.

“The inspector loses their freedom to inspect an establishment if they desire so,” he explained. Further, he added that the system-generated randomised inspection schedule and the standard operating system envisaged in the Code violates certain provisions of Convention 81 of ILO like prior intimation to employer about the occurrence of future inspection. Having ratified Convention No. 81, governance Convention, India has to maintain a system of labour inspection in industry and commerce. The unorganised sector, by and large, is sort of outside the remit of most labour inspectors, explains Mehrotra.

The OSH Code, 2020, also allows third-party audit and certification of start-up establishments or class of establishments, helping them assess and improve health and safety without intervention of the Inspector-cum-Facilitator. “If a third party audit gives a clean chit, inspectors do not have authority to contradict that. This is again a violation of Convention 81 of ILO,” Sarkar said.

Industrial Relations Code on job security, bargaining power

The Industrial Relations Code, 2020, recognises fixed term employees as a formal category of hiring, which means workers can be hired for a fixed period. These workers will be eligible for all benefits (EPF, ESI, flexible working hours, timely and minimum wages) and gratuity after completing one year of service.

“Workers might be forced to toil under poor working conditions with high targets. It increases the risk of exploitation and job insecurity as women workers might fear that their contracts might not be extended,” said Prathibha R., a labour rights activist and the president of the Garment and Textile Workers Union (GATWU) in Bengaluru.

Then, there are fears that the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, has reduced workers’ bargaining power. The Industrial Relations code mandates a 14-day prior notice for a strike. Once the labour department receives the notice, it sets off the conciliation process to facilitate resolution between an employer and union. “During this process, a protest cannot happen. The concern is that the consolidation process can linger for a long period,” Sarkar explains.

According to Venugopal, women's unions, collectives, and self-help groups have demonstrated that when women have a voice, they can advocate for rest breaks, water access, and workplace policies that are actually responsive to heat.

For example, historically, men dominated the garment industry in Bengaluru. However, following a number of labour strikes in the 1970s at Gokuldas, one of the largest garment export houses in the state, the industry shifted to hiring women, assuming that women would be less likely to unionise, reads a 2021 paper published in Globalizations.

Decades later, the paper explains, trade unions have been instrumental in giving voice to women workers. Organisations like the Garment and Textile Workers Union in Bengaluru and the Garment and Fashion Workers Union in Chennai have actively exposed labour rights violations and fought for higher minimum wages for women.

Advisories for informal workers

The four labour codes largely have little to offer to informal workers in terms of protection of working conditions, job security or bargaining power. “The Indian labour market is inherently informal and very deregulated. About 90% of workers are outside the protective framework. Their working conditions might get affected due to climate change,” said Sarkar.

To address these heat-health risks and their impacts on vulnerable groups, over 250 cities and districts across 23 heat-prone states have operational heat action plans (HAPs). For example, Delhi’s HAP recognises women, children and older people as vulnerable groups along with construction workers, factory workers, transport, sweepers, laborers and vendors and street hawkers. It tasks the labour department with changing the shift of outdoor workers schedule from peak hours and making emergency kits such as ice packs, oral rehydration therapy available for construction workers.

A March 2023 report by the Centre for Policy and Research highlighted that most HAPs identify broad categories of vulnerable groups. However, the list of solutions proposed by them are not tailored for each group.

“What a construction worker needs on a building site is different from what a home-based garment worker needs in a small room in a dense urban neighbourhood,” Venugopal added.

For informal workers, various local governments issue advisories for changing work hours. “This is unevenly implemented,” Singh said. This, she adds, is not a problem with enforcement but an issue around the incentives under which the informal economy works. “Informal workers face the largest burden of loss of hours or days given their reliance on daily or weekly wages,” she explained.

A 2023 study published in International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction highlighted that among construction workers (who are employed by contractors), income prevails when forced to decide between prioritisation of health versus income.

This is more true for women outdoor labourers given their overall lower income levels of women, as we explained above. “A lack of economic security poses an impossible trade-off between health and income in which women have no choice but to prioritise income,” the paper added.

This is the first of a four-part series on India’s new labour laws and climate protections for women workers.

This report is republished with permission from ISignal, formerly IndiaSpend, a data-driven, public-interest journalism non-profit. It has been lightly edited for style and clarity.