Heat stress becoming a serious risk for MSMEs and workers: Reports

World MSME Day is being observed today, in June, a month that has increasingly come to symbolise the growing intensity of India's heatwaves. For the country's MSMEs, extreme heat is no longer a seasonal inconvenience but a serious operational risk, disrupting production, lowering productivity and raising costs. A critical economic challenge, driven by escalating climate events, requires urgent attention from both policymakers and industry.

Recent research reports by WRI India and HeatWatch have revealed how extreme heat is impacting the lives of MSME factory workers in India. Heatwaves disrupt production, damage assets, affect workers, interrupt supply chains and reduce profits. Smaller enterprises are especially vulnerable because they often lack financial resources, insurance coverage, and technical expertise to prepare for climate shocks.

In February, HeatWatch (along with TISS Mumbai) came out with a report titled ‘Breaking Point: Heat and the Garment Floor’ based on an extensive survey of 115 garment workers in Tamil Nadu and Delhi-NCR. The findings revealed that 36.5% of workers reported that the water available on the factory floor is either unclean or runs out soon. 80% reported no air movement at their workstations. 87% of workers reported facing heat-related issues such as headache, dizziness, weakness, and muscle cramps in the last 12 months. Among female workers, 96.8% reported a burning sensation during urination.


Despite this, the report said that 78% of workers skip breaks to meet targets. “Those who skip breaks have nearly doubled the stress scores of those who do not.”

WRI India released a report this June titled ‘Resilience of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises to Climate Risks: A Vulnerability Assessment in the Manufacturing Sectors of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu’. The report focused on manufacturing MSMEs in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, particularly textile and automotive-component units. It is based on surveys of 310 enterprises across Surat, Chennai and Coimbatore.

As per the report, 92% of surveyed MSMEs said heat stress affects their operations. Among these, 98% of these effects are experienced by micro enterprises, 87% by small and 85% by medium enterprises .

Nearly two-thirds reported higher energy costs, while many experienced equipment problems and reduced operational efficiency, it read.

Furthermore, around 78% of businesses reported lower worker productivity due to heat, and more than half observed increased absenteeism. 41% of the MSMEs reported incidence of heat-related illnesses. Here, these incidences were higher among micro and small enterprises compared to medium ones .

The MSMEs’ understanding of climate change’s effect on operations and their responses appear to be very limited. As per WRI India’s report, only 7% of the MSMEs “reported strong understanding of climate change, which decreases to 4% when assessed in terms of understanding business-specific climate risks”. Many of them have only taken up short-term coping measures over long ones, with the most common response being providing drinking water.

As per HeatWatch’s survey, 60% of the surveyed factories did not have any medical clinic or doctor. 73.3% of factories surveyed had roofs made of metal or asbestos. Further, 7 out of 15 factories had no devices to capture temperature or humidity. “The remaining 8 that do capture temperature do not take any measures to revise work schedules or adjust work based on extreme heat,” it read.

Both reports argued that building climate resilience cannot be left to MSMEs alone. Governments, industry associations, financial institutions, and large companies need to work together to bring solutions around this. Climate resilience should become a core part of India’s industrial development strategy, not an afterthought.

Illustrations by Garima Bora