How Extreme Heat in India Is Pushing Trans Women Further Into Unsafe Sex Work

This project explores how intensifying heat waves in India are quietly reshaping survival economies within the Hijra/Kinnar community, a traditional network of transgender women who largely depend on informal labor such as begging at traffic signals and performing at ceremonies.

As temperatures across Indian cities increasingly cross 40°C to 45°C (104°F to 113°F), prolonged exposure to extreme heat is making these livelihoods physically dangerous and economically unsustainable.

This story examines how shrinking daytime incomes are pushing many trans women toward nighttime sex work as a means of survival, exposing them to new forms of precarity, violence, and exploitation. This project also investigates the layered vulnerabilities created by extreme heat, including health risks linked to hormone therapy, inadequate housing conditions, and the stigma surrounding sex work within sections of the Hijra community itself.

At its core, this project looks at how climate change deepens existing inequalities, revealing how rising temperatures disproportionately impact communities already excluded from stable employment, healthcare, housing, and social protection.