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:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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........

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