A nationwide heat wave that began in May has brought unprecedented temperatures to northern and western India .

The India Meteorological Department issued red alerts at the end of May warning about the "very high likelihood" that many people would experience heat illness and heat stroke, and urging "extreme care" for vulnerable individuals.

Despite the heat wave, however, Kanchan Devi is forced to make her living outdoors, baking bricks in the state of Haryana.

Temperature warnings do little for informal laborers such as Devi. The twenty-something-year-old only has a piece of cloth wrapped around her head to protect her from the sun.

Devi, who belongs to the Dalit community — a historically marginalized group from the lowest level of India's centuries-old discriminatory caste hierarchy — squats for hours at a time as she works at the furnace to produce bricks. Last month, Devi experienced dizziness at work during the heatwave and was subsequently hospitalized due to low blood pressure.

A report by the Center for Labour Research and Action found that over 50% of the workers at the 21 brick kilns it surveyed were Dalits.

"Our lives are always at risk," said Raheb Rajput, a Dalit construction worker in New Delhi, who told DW that he lost his cousin to the heat wave in May. "It is getting hotter with every passing year."

Nearly 25,000 people are believed to have experienced........

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