As the summer heat intensifies, access to cooling becomes a marker of economic privilege in the world’s most populous nation
It was the summer of 2024 when Annu Tiwari, 35, fell sick after fainting one day at her home in Bahraich, a district in northern India. Being alone at home, she couldn’t be taken to the hospital immediately. When she fainted again two days later, she was rushed to a local quack who claimed Annu was sick because “the heat entered her brain.”
Unconvinced, Annu’s husband, a commercial vehicle driver, took his wife to a state-run healthcare facility where they received similar advice and a week’s worth of medication. Upon returning home, he borrowed Rs 38,000 (about $450) from a friend to purchase a UPS for power backup and a second-hand air conditioner.
“I do not have kids and my wife remains on heavy medication and I cannot let her suffer,” explains Subhash Tiwari, 39. “She is the only one who takes care of me and this is the reason that I have been working four to five hours extra everyday to keep my finances in place and keep my wife happy through these materialistic things.”
Visitors brave the heat Wave during a hot summer afternoon at Kartavya Path Lawns, on June 4, 2024 in New Delhi, India. © Raj K Raj/Hindustan Times via Getty ImagesBetween March and June 2024, India experienced unprecedented heat, with 37 cities surpassing 45 degrees Celsius. The northern and eastern regions faced double the usual number of heatwave days. May 2024 was particularly severe, with temperatures averaging 31.7°C, a full degree higher than in May 2023.
Electricity demand during April-September 2024 was 6.1% higher than the same period in 2023, with approximately 19% of this increase attributed to higher temperatures. From April to June 2024, when heat waves were particularly severe across the plains, electricity demand rose 10.8% compared to the previous year. Air conditioning accounted for an estimated 30% of this year-on-year increase, rising to more than one-third of the additional demand in May.
Experts suggest that as air conditioning ownership increases, the impact of the extreme heat on India’s electricity demand will become even more pronounced in the future.
Luxury of cooling
While Subhash secured a loan for an air conditioner, others like Dimple Mishra, a Lucknow resident who earns money by stitching and tailoring, couldn’t even afford a simple cooler for her children.
“I am already financially stressed and I cannot afford to buy anything. The situation is already hand to mouth,” she says. “My husband who is a daily wager is also finding it hard to get work everyday and the rising cost of electricity is also a worry for me. With the coming summers my electricity bill will rise at least 200 rupees ($3) and this has already started giving me a reason to work extra time.”
Dimple is contemplating sending her 14-year-old son to work at a nearby grocery shop where he could earn 100 rupees ($1.14) daily after school, just to help meet rising costs.
People filling water from a supply water tanker of Delhi Government, during a high temperature heat wave, at Chilla Village Near Mayur Vihar, on June 13, 2024 in New Delhi, India. © Raj K Raj/Hindustan Times via Getty ImagesDr. Santosh Shukla, a private healthcare practitioner in the town of Bachhrawan in the Rae Bareli district, which saw over a hundred cases of people falling sick due to heat waves last summer, tells us that state-run healthcare facilities are ill-equipped to deal with heat-related illnesses.
“There is a clear division which I can see and I can be wrong as well but honestly there is a divide. The rich can afford to go to private hospitals which have all the cooling facilities but our state-run hospitals do not have basic facilities. Even buying a cooler is a luxury for people who are financially stressed, forget air conditioning or water coolers,” he explains.
According to official reports from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, there were 360 reported heatstroke deaths in 2024. However, a report by the non-profit HeatWatch titled “Struck by Heat: A News Analysis of Heatstroke Deaths in India in 2024” estimated that the actual number of deaths was much higher, at 73,315. Other sources suggest that official figures might be underestimated due to underreporting, especially in rural areas.
A woman is standing beside her family member who is suffering from heatstroke in Varanasi, India, on May 30, 2024. India is reporting its first heat-related death this year according to an Indian media report. © Indranil Aditya/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesEconomic impact
Extreme heat is not only causing severe health problems in India; it’s also widening the poverty gap. Rising temperatures could cost India 2.8% of its GDP by 2050, according to a 2018 World Bank report. By the year 2100, that number could fall anywhere from 3% to a staggering 10% if adequate mitigation policies are not implemented, according to a 2022–2023 Reserve Bank of India report.
A National Disaster Management report states that heat-related mortality for vulnerable people (adults over 65 years of age) increased by approximately 68% between 2000-2004 and 2017-2021. The report further notes that “annual health-related deaths are projected to increase by 370% by mid-century.”
Dr. Yogendra Pandey, who is researching climate change and its impact on marginalized communities, says, “If you draw a comparison between the electricity bill for a family of four from five years back to now then you can see a sharp ten-fold increase and given the inflation, joblessness under which our country is reeling, you know it is going to bring a heat wave poverty very soon.”
Homeless people fill drinking water in plastic pots from a government tap amid a heat wave on a hot summer day at Rajiv chowk near Tau Devi Lal Stadium on June 12, 2024 in Gurugram, India. © Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty ImagesDouble burden
G.K. Taneja, the north India sales head for Initiative Electronics, notes that air conditioner prices have increased by at least 25% in the last decade, with a majority of purchases now made through installment plans.
“If I am selling 5 units a day or suppose 100 units in peak summer then 70% of them are bought on the monthly installment basis, because nearly half of these buyers do not have enough savings to buy it in one go,” Taneja says. “This is one major reason that many loan companies in the electronic segments have flourished in the last five years. The problem of heat waves is serious and air conditioners have now become a necessity from luxury so the government should think something on the lines of capping prices, or capping interest rates, reducing GST (goods and services tax) on air conditioners.”
A person is passing by second-hand air conditioner machines inside a second-hand electronics market in Kolkata, India, on February 26, 2024. © Sudipta Das/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesThe market for air conditioners in India is estimated to grow to $5 billion by 2028. The high number of personal loans for consumer electronics since last year forced the Reserve Bank of India to caution lenders about the growing debt burden.
As extreme heat events become more frequent and intense due to climate change, adaptation efforts are hampered by economic inequality. While wealthier Indians can afford air conditioning and quality healthcare, low-income families struggle with the double burden of heat-related illnesses and mounting energy costs.
“The most vulnerable populations are those who work outdoors, the elderly, and those who cannot afford cooling solutions,” explains climate policy expert Rajit Sengupta. “We’re seeing a new form of climate inequality emerge, where access to cooling becomes a marker of economic privilege.”
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