Surekha Chaurasia packs disposable cutlery from the tiny one-room home she shares with her family of six in Bhagwati Nagar, an informal settlement in Ahmedabad in the western state of Gujarat in India. Like most homes in India’s low-income neighbourhoods, Chaurasia’s has a cement roof. She would feel the first signs of the suffocating heat when the plastic spoons she had to pack would warm up. “I had low blood pressure, dizziness, itchiness, fatigue, fever and diarrhoea in the summers,” she said. Due to the heat, her family members also fell ill frequently.
Chaurasia’s family has two fans ...
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