New insurance pays Indian workers to stay home when heat turns deadly

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India lost an estimated 247 billion hours of labour to extreme heat in 2024, equivalent to nearly US$194 billion in economic losses

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Agence France-PressePublished: 1:02pm, 11 May 2026Clothes seller Lata Solanki used to face a devastating choice when India’s summer heat hit dangerous levels: risk her health going door-to-door for sales, or lose her income?

But now the 42-year-old is part of an insurance scheme that pays out when temperatures hit a threshold, so she can stay home without jeopardising her finances.

The “parametric” model pays out automatically when specific triggers are breached, in Solanki’s case after two consecutive days at 43.72 degrees Celsius (110 degrees Fahrenheit).

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The payout was modest, but it helped, she said in Ahmedabad, one of India’s hottest cities. “At least we feel there is some support,” she said. “Because of the heat, the fan runs day and night. The bill goes up.”

In 2023, the year before she joined the scheme, Solanki kept working during a heatwave and ended up sick at home for 20 days, losing at least 2,000 rupees (US$21) in income.

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