Paid for shade: How parametric insurance is helping Indian women

With higher temperatures come greater hazards for the poorly paid working outdoors. One parametric insurance pilot aimed to help protect vulnerable women in India.

News reports are increasingly dominated by headlines such as ‘Record-breaking temperatures’ and ‘Hottest summer ever recorded’. 

For those with access to air conditioning and cooling centres, extreme heat is uncomfortable but not dangerous. However, for millions of people, it is a serious threat to health, livelihoods and wellbeing. And as the climate changes, the issue is becoming more relevant each year. The year 2023 was the hottest on record, and 2024 temperatures are already surpassing previous records in some cities. 

In 2023, climate insurtech Blue Marble partnered with the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Resilience Center (Arsht-Rock) and the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) – an Indian trade union with more than 2.9 million members – to design an insurance solution that would protect vulnerable women from the health and income effects of extreme heat. They piloted a new kind of parametric insurance product: extreme heat income replacement protection for women.

Hundreds of people die each year during heatwaves in India as rising temperatures hit densely populated urban areas. The pilot product targeted 21,000 women living in urban areas and rural slums in the western state of Gujarat, working in trades where they were highly exposed to extreme heat – waste picking, recycling, shipbuilding, head loading, selling fruit and vegetables, and so on. These women worked outdoors for extended hours with little or no access to shade, water or toilets, in temperatures of 49.3°C or more. As a result, they endured multiple health issues, such as rashes, infections, burns, headaches, miscarriages, urinary tract infections and dehydration.

Leave a Comment