International Women’s Day helps us refocus on pressing issues that are facing women. The one issue that touches all sections of us women is India’s tryst with heatwaves. In 2025, it has begun earlier than usual, with the Konkan region in Maharashtra experiencing particularly severe conditions from mid-February.

Lack of winter rains has adversely affected the wheat and barley crops. The large number of women farmers who work here in small farm holdings are already apprehensive about this unseasonal weather.

These women farmers complain about how extreme weather events wreaked havoc on their lives in 2024 when temperatures across the state rose to unprecedented levels, leaving them totally ill-prepared to handle extreme climate change impacts. A database managed by Down To Earth showed that India experienced extreme weather events on 318 days of the 365 days, and, in 2024, the number of days had only increased.

This is alarming news because almost half the country’s population is employed in agriculture for its livelihood, with rainfall remaining their primary source of irrigation. Bhuda bai, who works as a farm labourer in the village of Akroli in Thane district, where this reporter spends six weeks every winter, said, “Last year the heat stress was so intense that we saw our summer crops shrivel and die before our eyes. The water of the nearby Tansa river had dried up, and we had no means to irrigate our crops.”

Women who work outdoors in the informal sector are the most affected. Extreme heat affects crop yields. Physical health and crop yield statistics show that 40 percent of........

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