CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED HEAT RISKS FOR MIGRANT POPULATIONS WORKING AT BRICK KILNS

India is experiencing increasing heat both in the economy and in rising temperatures. The people suffering the most from actual heat, such as rural populations and migrant daily wage laborers, are to a large degree left out of by globalization and neoliberal capitalism while still bearing the brunt of its negative consequences. The structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) launched in the early 1990s led India into a new economic era and transnational corporation export-oriented growth that has mainly manifested in its cities, widening the inequality gap between rural and urban populations. One consequence of this is a booming building industry that drives demand for clay bricks from brick kilns that employ rural migrant labor. Here, we find two sides of India emerging as the paradox of a building technology shaping the new while still based on ancient techniques of fired soil and human labor. Hence, at one extreme, new high-rise buildings are hosting busy modern life of people from India