Heat is putting Indian garment workers’ lives at risk today. We need to act now.

Nandita Shivakumar

0:29:07 / June 11, 2025
Nandita Shivakumar is a labor organizer and campaigner whose work has focused on gender justice, sustainability, and migrant rights in global fashion supply chains. She also represents the Tamil Nadu Textile and Common Labour Union (TTCU), a 12,000 worker strong, Dalit women-led trade union, working to ensure dignity, safety and decent work ...

Heat is putting Indian garment workers’ lives at risk today. We need to act now.

Nandita Shivakumar is a labor organizer and campaigner whose work has focused on gender justice, sustainability, and migrant rights in global fashion supply chains. She also represents the Tamil Nadu Textile and Common Labour Union (TTCU), a 12,000 worker strong, Dalit women-led trade union, working to ensure dignity, safety and decent work for textile workers. In this conversation Nandita describes how she is witnessing first hand the impacts of global warming and specifically increasing heat stress on garment workers. As she describes it, increasing heat and temperatures are having significant impacts on workers' health, particularly health problems for female workers, and is putting their lives at risk now. Michael and Nandita discuss the problem, the lack of accountability, the solutions, and the need to act now. 

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NANDITA SHIVAKUMAR
MICHAEL SCHRAGGER

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