From Heat Stress to Wage Cuts, India’s Contract Workers Reach Breaking Point

Sheema, a mother of two, moved to Noida from Bihar around seven years ago and began working in a garment factory. She was one of the hundreds of workers who recently took to the streets in Noida to protest against the low wages of contractual labourers. Her salary has remained around ₹10,000 a month for the past five years.

She had no intention of protesting, but what pushed her was the long wait for a cooking-gas cylinder. “All of a sudden, the price shot up to ₹3,000 a cylinder; I pay a rent of ₹4,000 every month. How will I feed my children,” she said.

Worker protests are not unique. What stood out about the recent ones was how they turned violent in some areas. Demonstrators set vehicles on fire and clashed with police.

“No worker wants to destroy their place of work because that is their future. So, it is a clear that they see no future in it. They are so alienated and so completely devoid of rights or dignity in their work,” said Nikhil Dey, co-founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), a civil-rights organisation.

The Trigger

Before the protests in Noida, workers had already protested in several places this year, with labour unrest reported in Barauni (Bihar), Surat (Gujarat), and Manesar and Panipat (Haryana).

While the West Asia crisis acted as an immediate trigger, pushing up LPG cylinder prices sharply, it was not the only cause. The protests, activists said, were rooted in what workers described as “inhuman conditions” on the ground.

Across regions and sectors, the demands have remained strikingly similar: better working conditions, especially for contract workers, higher minimum wages, fair overtime pay, clearance of pending dues and parity with permanent employees.

For many workers, the workplace itself has become a site of daily strain. In extreme heat conditions, often touching 50°C, workers continue without adequate ventilation or cooling systems.

A February 2026 study by advocacy group HeatWatch and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, based on interviews with 115 garment workers, found that 78.3% struggled to get permission to use toilets, while 68.7% said heat directly affected their ability to work.

Illness is not an option. Workers say that even a single day off leads to wage cuts, leaving them with little room to recover physically.

Women workers face an additional burden. Alongside harsh working conditions, many report exposure to gender-based discrimination, including harassment. This partly explains why women account for only 17.6% of contractual workers, reflecting deeper structural barriers.

Show Me the Money

Wages remain the major flashpoint. The Haryana government recently announced a 35% increase in minimum wages. However, such revisions are not uniform across India, as wage-setting is largely left to individual states. For instance, skilled workers in Delhi can earn up to ₹22,411 a month, while in Nagaland, wages can be as low as ₹7,050.

For workers in neighbouring states, such gaps have become a source of frustration. Many say their wages have not been revised for years. In Rajasthan, revisions in some categories have seen gaps of up to three years.

In UP, the last major revision of base minimum wages dates back to 2012. It was only after recent labour unrest that the state introduced an interim hike of around 20–21%, increasing wages by roughly ₹2,000–3,200 depending on skill levels.

This is where experts recommend the implementation of the findings of the Anoop Satpathy Committee. In 2018, it submitted its report on determining the methodology for fixing a national minimum wage. The expert committee recommended fixing the national minimum wage for India at ₹375 per day or ₹9,750 per month, irrespective of sectors and skills. It also suggested a housing allowance for urban workers of ₹55 per day, i.e., ₹1,430 per month. However, these recommendations have not been implemented so far.

Skyrocketing Prices

A deeper issue lies in how wages fail to keep pace with inflation. While government employees receive periodic revisions through dearness-allowance adjustments, informal and contract workers often see little to no systematic wage correction. As Dey pointed out, this leaves many workers stuck at survival-level incomes with no real protection against rising costs.

In theory, minimum wages are meant to track inflation through the Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers. In practice, the linkage is weak. Between 2021 and 2026, the cost of living rose by around 25% or more in many regions, while wage increases lagged.

In Haryana, for instance, prices rose by nearly 28%, but wages increased by only about 15%.

A large part of these conditions stems from the fact that many workers lack written contracts or job security. In UP, around 46% of workers are without a written contract, paid leave or social security—one of the highest shares in the country, second only to Bihar at 49%, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey.

“The majority of workers are employed as contract labour. However, none of them can actually prove that they are contract workers. You won’t find a single worker who has a formal contract,” said Chandan Kumar, a labour activist.

Today, India already ranks among the most overworked nations, with 51% of employees working over 49 hours per week. However, labour productivity stands at just $8.7 an hour, compared to $81.8 in the US.

Economists argue that longer working hours lead to diminishing returns. “A proportional increase in hours can result in less than proportional increases in production—primarily because the gains from longer working hours are offset by their harmful effects on workers’ health and quality of life,” wrote academicians Utkarsh Leo and Smita Roy Trivedi in a paper for London School of Economics.

The share of contractual workers in the economy has increased from 35% in 2014–15 to 42% 2023–24. So, a blow to these workers will have an impact on demand in the economy.

A Volatile World

At the same time, the broader economic environment remains volatile. Industries employing these workers are under pressure due to global disruptions linked to the West Asia conflict. Input costs on sectors dependent on petroleum-based materials, have risen by as much as 30% in certain cases.

“In sectors like textiles, employers need skilled workers such as tailors to stay. So, it is not always about exploitation; often, industries are also constrained by economic pressures,” said Mitali Nikore, founder and chief economist at Nikore Associates, a research outfit.

For India’s growth story, contractual workers play a critical role. Only when workers receive their due rights can the country move towards sustainable development. And only then will workers like Sheema not feel compelled to return to their villages, but instead see a future within India’s urban economy.