NAPM demands moratorium on punitive enforcement during heat wave

The National Alliance of People’s Movements strongly demanded an immediate moratorium on all eviction drives, livelihood confiscations and punitive enforcement actions against informal workers during peak summer months and heat wave periods.

In a letter addressed to Minister for Revenue Ponguleti Srinivasa Rao, the group of NGOs, unions and activists said any such actions during extreme heat conditions must be treated as endangering life and livelihood.

Informal workers are essential to the functioning of cities and communities and heat protection is a legal and moral obligation of the State and employers. Protecting workers from extreme heat is a matter of public health, labour rights and climate justice, the letter said, amid a slew of demands for workers’ welfare.

The Heat Wave Action Plan unveiled by the government a few weeks ago, needs to be widely publicised in the public domain in Telugu, Urdu and Hindi, the letter demanded.

Across cities and towns, lakhs of informal workers, including street vendors, construction workers, waste pickers, sanitation workers, delivery workers, transport workers, domestic workers and other self-employed workers are adversely impacted by the heat wave, as they are forced to work in open or poorly ventilated environments with little protection, which leads to serious health risks.

The alliance demanded various measures in governance, heat protection measures, social security measures and accountability and monitoring.

Declaration of heat waves as occupational hazard, dedicated budgets for heat protection for workers, inclusion of workers’ representatives in decision making, access to safe drinking water, rest breaks, shaded areas, and sanitation at all major work sites, markets, labour addas, and transport hubs, daylong access to public parks, mandatory provision of cooling infrastructure in high exposure sectors, free heat protection kits as a matter of right, and modification of working hours without wage cuts were a few important demands by the alliance.