Night shifts help brick kiln workers avoid peak heat, not its consequences

- Brick kiln workers in Uttar Pradesh have shifted to overnight schedules to avoid working in peak daytime heat. - Warm nights and shelters with no ventilation, mean they sleep only three to four hours a day. Sleep deprivation impacts health and cuts productivity sharply. - Despite the state heat action plan identifying kiln workers as vulnerable, many of them don’t receive enough support during the summer months. It was 3:00 a.m. on May 22. Crickets chirped in an open field near Kurka village in Bareilly district, Uttar Pradesh. However, the workday had started two hours ago for Reena Kashyap, 30, and her husband, Jagdish Kashyap who were moulding bricks under a solar-powered light. “We are now working through the night because it is impossible to stay here in the scorching afternoon heat,” she said. The couple, who mould bricks for Adarsh Brick Industry, went to sleep at 9:00 p.m. and woke up at 12:30 a.m. They planned to continue working until 11:00 a.m. “After that, I have to bathe, wash clothes, cook, and feed the children. Then in the evening, we stack the bricks and prepare the mud for the next day; the entire day is gone,” she said. Jagdish added, “During summer, we barely manage four hours of sleep a day. It is so hot during the day that sleeping is impossible. We don’t have any facilities like fans, coolers, or electricity here ,at the kiln.” The couple migrated from the village of Bujhia Jagir to the brick kiln site in Kurka in the same tehsil, Meerganj, in January 2026. They live here with their four children in a temporary shelter built of bricks and raw mud with a tin roof. There is no ventilation or electricity. “We try to sleep for one to two hours during the day, but it bakes inside. It is impossible to sleep; the entire body feels restless,” said Reena, who bought a 40-watt solar panel to power a light for their night shifts and to charge their mobile phones. Explaining their decision to work at night, she said, “We are paid ₹400 for every 1,000 bricks we mould. During the summer, working in the daytime is nearly impossible because of the heat, so we work at night. Otherwise, how will we survive? Fewer bricks mean less income. We can either think about getting enough sleep or feeding our families; we cannot do both.” On May 22, Bareilly recorded a maximum temperature of 46°C. Neighbouring districts like Rampur also experienced similar heat. On the same day, 97 of the world’s 100 hottest cities were located in India. A few kilometres away, another brick moulder, Raees Ahmed from Rustampur, a village in Rampur, spent three days’ worth of his daily wages on his health, in the third week of May. “Last week, I felt dizzy. The doctor put me on four intravenous drips, which cost me ₹1,200. My earnings from three days vanished in one go,” he said. Health experts generally recommend seven to nine hours of sleep for adults. However, interviews conducted at brick kilns in the Bareilly, Rampur, and Amroha districts found that many workers sleep only three to four hours during peak summer periods. Their experience related to loss of income is also not isolated. The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change Report 2025 has given an estimate of the impact on labour hours. The report notes, heat exposure wiped out a record-breaking 247 billion potential labour hours in 2024, averaging 419 hours lost per person. A maladaptation According to data from the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB), there were 19,718 brick kilns in the state in 2024. In a response to a question in the Lok Sabha, the Ministry of Labour and Employment stated that in 2020, over 2.5 million people in Uttar Pradesh were earning their livelihood by working at brick kilns. A study on female brick kiln workers in West Bengal found that heat exposure significantly increased physical strain and reduced productivity. Researchers observed that work output fell by about 2% for every 1°C rise in temperature above 34.9°C. Associate Professor Subhasis Sahu from the Department of Physiology at the University of Kalyani, and also a co-author of the West Bengal study, said, “In many cases, workers are attempting to protect themselves from extreme daytime heat by shifting work to nighttime or early morning hours. However, this adaptation may unintentionally create another hidden health risk through poor sleep duration and disrupted recovery. Thus, while reducing direct heat exposure, they may simultaneously increase vulnerability to fatigue, impaired cognition, and chronic physiological stress.” “Based on our previous research articles we found that cardiovascular load is increased during heavy physical labour due to the work demand. Additionally, they (the kiln workers) faced discomfort, heat exhaustion, excessive sweating, and heat rashes,” he reveals. “In our study, the workers reported heat-related illnesses (HRIs) frequently during working under occupational heat,” Sahu added. His team is currently working on how inadequate sleep intensifies HRIs. Apekshita Varshney, the founder of Heat Watch, a New Delhi-based research and advocacy non-profit, said, “It’s clearly a maladaptation. While shifting work hours may avoid the immediate risk of heat, it creates unsustainable long-term harm. True adaptation should reduce overall vulnerability and not create new risks.” Sudhir Katiyar, secretary of the Centre for Labour Research and Action, a rights-based NGO, explained that both the temperatures and the number of extremely hot days are rising. These moulders at brick kilns live in deplorable conditions. Their temporary housing structures are very low in height, lacking any ventilation. Tin-shade roof quarters become intensely hot. Kiln owners do not provide them with facilities such as fans or coolers, which is why they cannot sleep on peak summer days. This leads to irritability and a drop in their work efficiency. Less sleep in a warming world In Luhari Khadar, a village in the Amroha district, Priyanka Jatav was taking lunch of roti and chutney after moulding bricks. “I only slept for three hours last night,” she said. “Due to the lack of sleep, the body becomes very tired, and we can’t work properly. During winter or pleasant weather, we easily mould 2,000 to 2,500 bricks a day, but in this heat, we only manage to mould 1,200 to 1,800. Because of this, we sometimes have to work even during the intense afternoon sun and heat. In the afternoon, the mud and sand get incredibly hot, making it even harder to mould bricks.” Dinesh Rajput, a moulder from Tursa Patti, another village in Bareilly, now tracks the temperature on his phone to decide when to work. “On the days it crosses 42°C, I come out at 10:00 or 11:00 p.m. to start working through the night to the next morning. The seasons themselves have shifted, he said. “Previously, our work cycle had four months of winter and four months of summer. Now, there are only two months of winter and six months of summer. Now the heat begins as early as February; it never used to be like this. When I feel completely exhausted and realise I can’t work without resting, I take a day off. That night, I slept the whole night. I get seven to eight hours of sleep at the cost of a full day’s wage.” Mubarik Shah from the village of Rustampur said, “Only god knows the conditions under which we work and the problems we face. The body feels exhausted, laziness sets in, and our working capacity drops. Because of this, we end up having to work for even longer hours.” The Uttar Pradesh Heat Wave Action Plan (UPHWAP) 2025 also discusses the state’s warming trend and the increasing challenges it presents for workers. It compares the highest summer temperatures recorded in 1982 with those in 2023 and shows that most districts have become hotter. For instance, in Bareilly, the highest temperatures recorded in April, May and June 2023 were 0.94°C, 1.38°C and 1.19°C higher, respectively, than those recorded in the same months in 1982. “Sleep poverty is fundamentally climate-driven occupational injustice. Rising ambient temperatures prevent restorative sleep even when workers try to rest,” said Varshney. Policy on paper, not on the ground The UPHWAP specifically notes the heat exposure and vulnerability of workers employed at brick kilns, identifying them as a vulnerable demographic. It advises employers to shift outdoor work away from peak afternoon heat (12-4 p.m.), provide shelters, drinking water, electrolytes (ORS), and emergency medical support at worksites, and report heat-related illnesses to public health facilities during the April-June heat season. Yet on the ground, the gap between advice and practice, is stark. Sumeri Lal Yadav, the operator of Adarsh Brick Industry, said his kiln employs around 30 pather (moulder) families, of whom 25 live in temporary tin-roofed shelters. “Due to the rising heat and changing weather, problems are definitely increasing. We try to provide solar panels and small batteries.” Reena Kashyap, however, said that her family bought their small panels themselves and received no support. The panel they use is only 40 watts. Yadav acknowledged the limit. “We cannot provide electricity connections, high-capacity panels, fans, or coolers to these people, entirely on our own. We need government support for this.” He added, “We have not received any written instructions, advisories, or regulatory orders from officials concerning heat wave management.” Bareilly’s Deputy Labour Commissioner Anurag Mishra spoke to Mongabay-India and said, “I was appointed here recently. Our team will conduct inspections at these brick kilns, after which appropriate steps will be taken.” “This (difficulties faced by kiln workers) exposes complete failure to recognise heat as an occupational hazard in India’s labour code. The Factories Act lacks heat-specific mandates for cooling, hydration, or rest. Heat action plans focus on public warnings, not worker protections. Informal workers like those in brick kilns, completely fall through every gap,” said Varshney. Banner image: Reena Kashyap moulds bricks at night. Image by Shivan Bhardwaj. Read more: Old kilns, new blocks, uncertain futures