India, April 30 -- The Indian Meteorological Department has declared that a year of extreme heat and a brutal summer looms ahead. Heat stress is now a periodic occurrence every year. Thus, labour law protections for workers against heat stress have become paramount. A clutch of news reports point to the death of building and construction workers and sanitation workers due to heat strokes. In 2022-2023, as per labour ministry data, heat/sun stroke killed 1,534 workers. The International Labour Organization estimates that India is one of the hardest-hit countries in terms of heat stress suffered by labour. A recent study conducted on informal workers in Delhi found significant income loss for workers as a result of rising wet bulb temperatures, alongside a surge in prices of essential commodities such as medicine, ice, and water with costs increasing by 14.4% per degree rise in temperature. In the absence of direct provisions for heat protection in labour laws, as temperatures rise, state governments issue advisories and notifications under the Disaster Management Act. These typically include measures such as rescheduling working hours, halting outdoor work during peak heat periods, and ensuring access to hydration and first aid. However, these notifications are generally neither enforceable nor is compliance scrutinised as they are in the nature of advisories rather than legal mandates. There is a need to shift away from reacting to heat stress as only a disaster response, by integrating heat resilience into labour law. The primary law governing workers' safety and health during heat events - the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSHWC) Code, 2020 - provides a broad framework under which the Central and state governments are required to notify the responsibilities of employers. A comparison of the OSHWC with the erstwhile Factories Act 1948 reveals a troubling dilution of specificity. The Factories Act contained detailed provisions mandating ventilation and temperature control. The Model Rules under the Factories Act provided for specific wet bulb temperature thresholds, and for inspection of temperatures in factories. The current OSHWC Code and draft rules being published by various states fail to provide an adequate framework for protection of workers against heat. The OSHWC Code mandates the establishment of a state occupational, safety and health advisory board that is tasked with developing rules, standards, regulations and policies and implementing the Code. However, the OSHWC Code and draft rules, unlike the framework under the Factories Act, leave functions on specific heat related mandates to guidelines or notifications to be brought by the advisory boards, without any guiding framework. Additionally, the constitution of the committees has been left to the discretion of the states. States have released draft rules which largely follow a similar framework with some variations. States such as Uttar Pradesh include membership from the State Disaster Management Authority in the advisory board, while this is not the case in most other states. Another lacuna is the absence of provisions on automatic rescheduling of work hours for outdoor workers. Although the labour ministries issue advisories, there is no indication that these are binding on the employers. The OSHWC draft rules in many states do not feature automatic rescheduling of working hours during heat waves. Interventions so far have treated heatwaves as temporary disasters rather than predictable and recurring occupational hazards. Instituting long term infrastructural requirements to ensure heat preparedness - such as cooling and ventilation measures, cool-roofing, exhaust systems, high volume low speed fans, etc, require planning and foresight. These cannot be introduced on an ad-hoc basis when temperatures rise and alerts are issued. There is overwhelming evidence regarding the negative effects of heat on the workforce. Yet, workers in India continue to be governed under a fragmented regulatory landscape where protections depend on seasonal notifications. As states stand at the cusp of implementing the OSHWC, they must look towards going beyond minimal compliance by hardcoding heat resilience into the law through rules. Building heat resilient infrastructure for workers is a prolonged process, co-ordinated foresight and planning by the Central and state governments is of the essence....