Delhi's poorest, homeless face biggest risk as mercury soars

Extreme heat is one of the greatest challenges for nations in Asia and beyond. In the first of a two-part series, The Sunday Times looks at how heat is affecting people, their livelihoods and the need to adapt.

- Nirmala Ganapathy

The memories of the unprecedented heatwave in India in 2024 will never fade for 19-year-old Aakash Kumar, whose father died in the summer.

Sitting under dark clouds as the monsoon rains brought cooling relief after the hottest May and June on record, Mr Kumar said his father Abhinash woke up on June 19 complaining about the heat.

The 55-year-old felt uneasy and hesitant about going to work cleaning public toilets in the city.

He was right to be concerned. On June 18 and 19, night-time temperatures hit a five-decade high for June at 35.2 deg C. Day temperatures hovered at around 45 deg C.

But the fear of losing a day's salary as a cleaner earning 7,000 rupees (S$110) a month drove him to go to work 2km away.

Mr Kumar said: "I went to meet him at work carrying lunch, and he kept telling me he was feeling uneasy and felt he couldn't breathe. He was sweating.

"He ate a little dal and rice and drank some water, but then he started getting worse. He told me he felt like he was going to die." His father became increasingly disoriented and died on the way to hospital.

"I don't go out anywhere now. Everything reminds me of my father," said Mr Kumar, whose mother left when he was 12.

His aunt, Ms Vinita Singh, who was moved with the two of them and her own three children to a homeless shelter in 2023, said May and June had been unbearable.

They sheltered under blue tarpaulin stretched over makeshift wooden structures. Every night, the family of six squeezed onto a narrow bench and a charpoy, a traditional Indian bed made of rope.

"We would sleep in wet clothes at night to keep cool because we had no fans. I used a hand fan. It was unbearable," said Ms Singh, who would bathe her two younger children, aged seven and nine, at least twice in the night.

"What choice do we have? We have to bear the heat," she added.

May and June 2024 were the hottest in seven decades in Delhi and other parts of India.