'Overheated': Women, Work, and the Relentless Heat of India's Informal Economy

Overheated—a multimedia documentary project by photojournalist Ed Kashi and writer/producer Julie Winokur—examines how extreme heat is affecting female workers in India's vast informal economy. The project is part of a longer-term body of work the two have built documenting the human toll of rising temperatures on laborers across Central America, the Middle East, and Europe.

In May 2026, Kashi and Winokur spent two weeks reporting in Gujarat, India, during the region's hottest season, with temperatures reaching 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Working in partnership with one of India's largest national trade unions representing women in the informal sector, they followed three subjects closely: a street vendor, a home-based seamstress, and a small farmer, each navigating long hours of labor with little protection from the heat.

This project combines intimate photography and narrative video storytelling with real-time environmental data from Harvard's HATS research, allowing audiences to connect what they see in a worker's face or posture to what her body is physiologically experiencing.

Rather than focus on the politics of climate change, this project centers on the human cost of extreme heat and the case for practical interventions, including cooling access, labor protections, and healthcare.