Noida: Inside the factories lining Noida’s industrial sectors, workers press, weld, cut and stitch through summer temperatures that routinely exceed what one might endure under direct sunlight. Tin roofs absorb the heat, cooling facilities are rare, and ventilation is often restricted for production needs. When the shift ends, little relief awaits as most workers return to cramped, poorly ventilated single rooms in worker colonies in sectors 57, 58 and 59.While wage demands have dominated headlines, researchers and labor experts claim heat stress, endured in silence but compounding financial pressure and poor living conditions, was as much a driver of discontent as the pay dispute itself.A recent study by HeatWatch and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, based on interviews with 115 garment factory workers in NCR and Tamil Nadu, found that factory workers recorded, on a 100-point Heat Stress Index, an average of 59, classified as ‘high stress’. For one in four workers, the HSI was as high as 70, a threshold categorized as ‘critical’.
A worker carries a bundle of semi-stiched clothes inside a factory in Noida
Nearly 87% of workers reported heat-related symptoms, including headaches, dizziness, weakness and muscle cramps, over the past year, while 88% said they felt completely drained by the end of the day during peak summer months, the study noted.The study also noted that 73% of factories have metal or asbestos roofs. Almost half have no instruments to monitor temperature or humidity, while one in three factories has no medical clinic or doctor on the premises.When TOI sought access to some of the garment factories in the city, entry was denied. But Satyendra, a worker from Hardoi employed at BKF Exports, a garment exporter, said he works in the ironing section, where heated plates and steam keep temperatures and humidity high regardless of season. “We perspire all through the day,” he said, adding that the conditions sometimes become so severe that workers fall ill or are forced to take unscheduled leave, forfeiting their daily wages in the process.
Single-room residential accommodations with shared toilets for factory workers in Bishanpura village
Shahida, who works in a stitching department of another garment factory, which she declined to identify, said the room remains unbearably hot through summer. A few ceiling fans are installed in her section, she said, but workers in the adjacent cutting area are denied even that. “We are told that windy conditions can disrupt the cutting work,” she said.Sandeep, a laborer from Chhapra in Bihar who works for a fabrication company, said a few days ago he climbed down from a rooftop, where he had been fitting overhead metal sheets since morning, after feeling dizzy in the scorching heat. “Heat exposure comes with the nature of my job. We are the ones who make these tin roof factories and cannot expect cool working conditions,” he said.Factory managers, however, claim they take every measure to ensure workers’ comfort. Amar Nagar, HR manager at Basant India Inc., a garment manufacturer in the NCR, said, “The workers are getting all the facilities inside.” But he would not confirm whether temperature monitors were installed or any specific cooling arrangement was in place.The burden does not lift at the factory gate.Most of these garment factory workers live in Bishanpura village in Sector 58, where single-room tenements are arranged in rows, with every two or three rooms sharing a toilet. Typically, four to five workers share a room, each paying between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500 per month.But for families, the arithmetic is stronger. Sandhya Devi, who lives with her husband and two children in one such room, pays Rs 5,500 a month. “Summer months are pathetic when four members sleep in a small matchbox-like room,” she said. Newer buildings in the area offer air-conditioned accommodation, but at rents of Rs 10,000 a month, a sum that outstrips what most unskilled workers earn. “How can a worker afford a room for Rs 10,000 when he is earning Rs 15,000 a month?” she said.Prabal K Sen, a member of the board of governors at MDI Gurgaon and a former professor at XLRI, said the link between working conditions and the recent unrest is direct. “The recent unrest of the workers might have links with poor working and living conditions, which are indirectly linked with their income as well,” he said. A wage increase, he noted, would at minimum allow workers to access better housing, a modest but meaningful improvement.Following the protests, factories in Noida have revised wages, with the new rates displayed at their gates. The revised monthly minimum salary now stands at Rs 13,690 for unskilled workers, Rs 15,059 for semi-skilled and Rs 16,868 for skilled workers.“It is a significant increase from the Rs 7,000 to Rs 10,000 that unskilled workers were previously paid,” Satyendra said, welcoming the revision. But he remains cautious. “It is good that the rates are fixed now. But whether they will pay double for night shifts and overtime is still to be seen,” he added.
