This is the first in a series of articles on the recent protest by industrial workers in Noida for higher wages and improved working conditions. The series analyses what happened before and after April 13, the state and industry’s response, and the conditions of work that provide the context. The report is based on ground reporting – interviews by the authors and independent media coverage.

On April 13, 2026, hundreds of factory workers across nearly 80 sites in Noida refused, for once, to disappear behind factory gates. They gathered outside instead – before shuttered entrances, many with placards bearing a single demand: “Salary 20,000.” There were no union banners, no flags, no flexes, just the simple cardboard placards. It was not a slogan so much as a line drawn against hunger.

Speaking to dozens of YouTube channels, workers described surviving on Rs 11,000–Rs 13,000 a month, wages too thin to hold together food, rent, cooking gas, school fees and the sheer cost of remaining alive. Their numbers swelled and they forced shutdowns and blocked traffic for hours.

A series of similar wage hike demands had already been raised by workers at Honda’s scooter and motorcycle manufacturing plant in Manesar, Haryana, on April 2. From there, it spread to Munjal Showa Limited on April 4, at a plant located behind Honda, then to Satyam Auto and Roop Polymers by April 6 and from there to garment companies such as Richa Global and Modelama by April 8.

Workers came out of three of six Richa Global factories in Manesar. Haryana announced a wage revision on April 9, 2026. This wage revision was  the first actual revision of wages in nearly 11 years.

After they won a wage hike, workers of Richa Global factories in Noida – it has five factories in the industrial township – and workers of Motherson Sumi Wiring (an automobile parts manufacturing firm) started asking for a similar wage increase. What began as a three or four-day protest inside the factories intensified April 13 onwards.

This mobilisation had not been built by unions over months; it flared, perhaps through social media and personal communications, in a matter of days. Because hunger, mistreatment and non-response were already experienced everywhere, the protest leapt quickly across industrial clusters and unrelated sectors, even drawing in domestic workers who know the same economy of underpayment and disregard.

April 13: Day of mass protest – and what followed

Workers gathered and initial protests began in Sector 62 but rapidly spread to other industrial and high traffic zones on April 13. Key locations where protests erupted were the hosiery complex and areas around the Motherson factory in Phase 2, the metro station near Sector 60, factories in Sector 63, Sector 15 and the Phase 1 area.

According to senior police officials, about 42,000 workers had gathered and staged demands at 83 locations in Noida. The protests were peaceful but road blocks caused major traffic jams at several intersections, including on the main Dadri road which connects Noida to Delhi from Mayur Vihar.

According to the police, the protest turned violent only at two places with stone-pelting and vehicle vandalism, leading to the use of tear gas to disperse the crowd. Gautam Buddh Nagar Police Commissioner Laxmi Singh said that at the two spots where the protests escalated into violence and arson, the authorities used minimal and judicious force to bring the situation under control.

Of the over 80 places in Noida where workers protested, even according to the police, the protest turned violent only at two places and was brought under control fairly soon.

However, mainstream media coverage remained fixated almost entirely on these two sites, turning what were limited incidents into the defining image of the entire protest. By repeatedly broadcasting........

© The Wire