Before dawn breaks over the Indian industrial hub of Surat, textile worker Sibaram Pradhan is already awake, sitting on the floor in a cramped room he shares with as many as nine other men. Sweat beads on his forehead even at 6 a.m. as sweltering heat and humidity make days and nights hot across India this summer.

Like numerous others from his home state of Odisha in eastern India, Pradhan works in a power loom factory that produces polyester cloth in Surat, among the largest hubs for synthetic fabrics in the world. The 35-year-old is among the millions of workers in South Asia who endure appalling living conditions combined with hot, humid, poorly ventilated and incredibly loud factory floors as climate-driven extreme heat is only becoming worse across the region.

“I’m a poor person. I have come to Gujarat from Odisha, which is 2,000 kilometers away (1,242 miles), to work. We are poor people; we have to work to survive,” says Pradhan.

Sibaram Pradhan prays before going to work. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

Sibaram Pradhan, a power loom factory worker, makes a video call to his family at his residential quarters in Surat. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

Sibaram Pradhan hangs clothes for drying after taking a bath. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

As soon as he’s up, Pradhan uses the little free time he has to place a video call to his wife and two kids in Odisha. A few minutes later, after praying in front of a small picture of his god posted in a corner of the tiny room, he walks down a dark, narrow hallway to join others lined up to use the toilets and bathe with a bucket. Two toilets and a few taps and buckets are shared by up to 100 people each day.

Over 200 workers live on two floors that are essentially huge halls divided into plywood cubicles that each house up to 10 people. There is little ventilation apart from a few ceiling fans. Temperatures have already reached 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) this summer, making both the factories and the workers’ housing feel stifling.

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