In Noida and beyond, listen to workers; protests underline precarity

On Monday, protests involving thousands of factory workers turned violent across the industrial belt in Noida. Over the past few months, workers’ protests have also taken place in other cities in North India — in February in Barauni in Bihar’s Begusarai district, and in March in Surat, Gujarat and Manesar, Haryana. The common thread that runs through them is the demand for higher minimum wages, overtime payments and better working conditions. While the violence is to be condemned, the larger message from these episodes of labour unrest is of the precarity of livelihoods — of subdued wage growth, juxtaposed with the steep rise in the cost of living, and of the absence of adequate safety nets. In recent weeks, workers have seen their already precarious financial position worsen due to the dislocations in global energy markets. This has led to disruptions in LPG supplies in India and the emergence of a huge black-market premium for securing gas cylinders. Alongside, there have been reports of units across the country either scaling down or halting production. This has had implications for jobs and incomes. The energy shock has been so severe that migrants from many urban centres have reportedly been returning to their villages. These episodes are not just limited to those working in factories. Towards the beginning of this year, gig workers engaged by online platforms had organised strikes to protest against uncertainty of wages, absence of transparency and unsafe working conditions. On March 9, the Haryana government revised the minimum wages with effect from April 1, 2026, following the labour protests in Manesar and Faridabad. In Uttar Pradesh, a high-level committee was set up to resolve the issues between workers and industries, and on Tuesday, it followed Haryana, with the government announcing a hike in minimum wages with effect from April 1. While these actions may assuage the workers’ more pressing demands, governments should not wait for matters to come to a head. Considering the imbalance in bargaining power, the concerns of workers must be heard and addressed before the situation worsens. A fair solution should be arrived at.