Noida industrial pocket that saw violence a fortnight ago remained calm on Labour Day

More than 1,700 police personnel had been deployed across the industrial belt, drones were used to carry out surveillance at more than 50 locations, and CCTV feed was being monitored round the clock, officials said. Senior officers were out on the street accompanying police patrols.

On Friday afternoon, groups of police personnel were stationed outside the premises of factories in Noida’s Phase 2, the industrial pocket where the April 13 protests peaked. The road leading to Nayagaon, where a large number of factory workers live, was heavily barricaded.

At least some workers seemed to have moved on from the protests. Dinesh Shrivastava (38), whom The Indian Express had met a fortnight ago, said on Friday that he now had a different job, where he had been promised a little more money than before.

On April 14, a day after the violent protests, Shrivastava and his wife Mamta Devi had told The Indian Express that they were planning to leave Noida because they feared continued unrest and unemployment for an indefinite period. They had said their combined monthly income of Rs 28,000 working as tailors was barely enough to feed the family and educate their 7-year-old daughter, whom they had left with relatives in Faridabad.

On Friday, Shrivastava said that after going without an income for about a week, both his wife and he had found employment in a different factory.

“I called many people to help me get a job. Finally, on April 21, both of us got tailoring work with a new employer, and we now sit close to each other. We struggled to meet our expenses in the interim, but we will hopefully be a little more comfortable now,” Shrivastava said.

On April 14, the Uttar Pradesh government raised minimum monthly wages in Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad to Rs 13,690 for unskilled workers, Rs 15,059 for semi-skilled workers, and Rs 16,868 for skilled workers.

On May 6, when he gets his salary, Shrivastava expects to receive Rs 17,110, including overtime. But there is still a lingering apprehension: “We will get to know if the government’s promise is actually followed… What if the companies do not abide by the directive? You cannot be sure until you actually get the money,” he said.

Even so, there seems to have been some improvement in the atmosphere at the workplace following the protests and the government’s intervention.

“Now, if you are nice to the supervisors, they are mostly nice to you. This was not the situation earlier; they would shout arbitrarily, depending on their mood,” Shrivastava said.

Another worker, Pinky Devi, who said she belongs to Samastipur and is the sole earning member for her family of three children, also expressed apprehension about whether the revised salaries would ultimately be given.

“Some workers are hopeful, others say it is an old tactic of factory owners and that nothing will change. I hope they give us the wages we have been promised,” Pinky said as she stitched a blouse on a sewing machine.

“I have calculated that I should be getting Rs 16,868. I hope I get the full amount,” she said.