DELHI -- Indian delivery driver Tejvinder wraps a white cloth around his face and mops up beads of sweat from under his baseball cap before setting off into the scorching Delhi sun.
The 23-year-old doesn't have much protection against the record-breaking heat -- and he doesn't have the luxury of cooling off either. He is on the clock and a customer is waiting for their groceries to arrive in 10 minutes or less, or they may switch to a rival delivery app.
"When I'm driving fast, sometimes I feel like I can't breathe in the hot air," said Tejvinder as he prepared to deliver his 17th order of the day. "I feel completely exhausted after my shift is done. Most days I have headaches."
India and neighboring Pakistan have been gripped by intense heat waves this year with the mercury soaring to a record 49.2C (120.5F) in the capital Delhi, a city already plagued by some of the world's worst air pollution.
The broiling temperatures, blamed on climate change, have sparked health warnings as deaths linked to the heat hit record highs.
But keeping cool in an air-conditioned office or even sitting in front of a fan is a fantasy for an estimated 15 million Indian gig workers like Tejvinder, who asked that his real name not be used out of fear for his job.
Day after day, this army of laborers hits sun-baked streets that can get so hot the asphalt melts, while their employers try to outdo each other with promises of faster service.
Tejvinder, who earns about 420 rupees ($5.40) a day after paying for gas, turns up each morning at a warehouse in south Delhi run by instant delivery app Blinkit. He and the other drivers are not given cool drinking water before setting off to work at around 6 a.m.
"They have multiple water coolers installed for workers inside but for delivery drivers there is nothing," he said. "We don't even have a fan, so we sit outside under the shade of a tree."
Sometimes customers fill their bottles, he said, but it's not long before the heat takes its toll.
"They tell us not to rush -- they're more worried about us than the companies we work for," he said, taking a sip from a water bottle balanced delicately on his motorcycle gas tank. "I try to keep myself hydrated, but even that is not easy in this heat. The water in my bottle gets so hot it's undrinkable."
Indian laborers use their helmets to pour water over themselves at an Ahmedabad construction site on a scorching summer afternoon. © Reuters More than 320 million people -- including poor laborers and factory workers -- across India are at risk from extreme heat and don't have access to fans, refrigerators and other cooling equipment, according to a report released last month by U.N. backed organization Sustainable Energy for All.
India's air conditioner makers are reportedly expecting record sales this year. But soaring demand for air conditioning among a small fraction of India's 1.4 billion people has also triggered a record surge in electricity use, taxing the country's power grid.
Sunil, a 25-year-old driver for India's biggest food delivery service, Zomato, knows the pain of unbearable heat.
He starts his 14-hour shift at noon -- the hottest part of the day -- and grapples with the humiliation of restaurant owners refusing to let him and his colleagues use their bathrooms.
"Just last week, one of the delivery workers suffered from diarrhea because of the extreme heat. He had to drive all the way back home in that condition so he could relieve himself and rest," said Sunil, who earns between 600 and 700 rupees a day.
Zomato, which is buying Blinkit in a 44.47 billion rupees ($569 million) deal announced Friday, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
A Blinkit spokesperson told Nikkei Asia: "We actively urge our store partners to ensure there is a continuous supply of water and cooling systems put in place."
Supplying gig workers with basic services is the least that the industry could do, said Shaik Salauddin, national general secretary for the Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers .
India's heatwave has been so intense that crossing India's sun-baked roads becomes a challenge with rubber sandals getting stuck in the melted tarmac. © Reuters "In this heat carrying a bag around all day breaks your back," he said. "The restaurants don't allow the delivery workers to use washrooms and in apartment buildings, we are sometimes forced to take the stairs even when the elevator is working."
There are growing calls for incentive pay to work in scorching temperatures, as unions await labor code changes that could offer some protection for millions of gig workers.
"When it rains, they pay us about 5 rupees per order as an incentive. The same logic should apply for working in this extreme heat," Salauddin said. "[Companies] don't want to take any responsibility for workers. They just want to earn a commission on their hard day's labor."
While the coming monsoon rains will bring some welcome relief from the searing heat, few delivery workers expect life to get much easier.
India's high jobless rate is pushing more young people into the sector, driving down wages and aggravating intense competition among delivery apps.
"Before they used to pay us 50 rupees per order. Then it was 35 rupees," said Tejvinder, who lives in a rented one-room house with his mother and brother. "It just keeps going down."