Salaries Aren’t Enough to Survive: Inside Noida’s Workers’ Lives
Living in cramped rooms and working through illness, workers say even a day’s missed pay disrupts the month.
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Thousands of factory workers in Noida recently took to the streets, demanding higher wages. On the ground, their demands looked less like negotiation and more like survival.
“11,000 rupay mein kya hota hai? There’s nothing left for us,” says Parvesh, a sanitation worker in a Noida factory, originally from Amroha, Uttar Pradesh. She has been working here for the past one-and-a-half years and lives in a single room with her husband and seven children.
Her monthly salary of ₹11,000 drops to around ₹9,500 after deductions. Rent, food and basic expenses take up nearly everything. Even taking a day off due to illness means losing pay. “We have to work even during our periods… if we take leave, our salary gets cut.”
Like many others, Parvesh migrated to the city hoping to improve her situation. “We came here because we couldn’t survive in the village. But things are even more difficult here.”
For Sachin, a 12th-pass quality checker in a Noida factory, the numbers are just as tight. “My salary is ₹11,000. ₹5,500 goes in rent, ₹3,000–₹4,000 on food. Only about ₹2,000 is left,” he says, the money he sends back home. Overtime is not optional. “If we don’t do overtime, we won’t be able to live here, eat, or support our families.”
Vinod, a semi-skilled worker living in Noida Sector 83 with his wife and three children, says even basic needs feel out of reach. His children’s school expenses alone go up to ₹12,000 a year. “I could only pay ₹4,000. The rest, we somehow manage in parts.”
Beyond the protest, one thing is clear: working every day still isn’t enough to live with dignity.