Same Work, Different Pay: Why The Noida Protests Are More Serious Than They Look

Transcript

00:07A war in the Middle East, a wage hike in Haryana, and burning cars in Noida.

00:13These three things are connected and the middle class scrolling past those protest videos should probably pay attention.

00:19When the Strait of Hormuz got shut down due to the war in Iran, LPG got more expensive in India.

00:26For a factory worker earning just 13,000 rupees a month, the Strait of Hormuz is not geopolitics.

00:32It's the reason dinner got more expensive last week.

00:35So, workers in Manasar, Haryana's auto manufacturing hub, hit the streets.

00:39Honda, Marathi suppliers, they stopped showing up.

00:42The Haryana government blinked and handed workers a 35% wage hike effective April 1st.

00:47Now, here's where Noida comes in.

00:54Noida sits right across the state border.

00:56Workers there do the same jobs, work the same hours, sometimes 12, sometimes 16.

01:00And they earn the same 13,000 rupees they earned before.

01:04Except now, their counterparts in Haryana are taking home 19,000.

01:07A gap of 6,000 rupees.

01:14Here's something to sit with.

01:15The median salary of a young Indian professional fresh out of college first job is around Rs 18-22,000

01:21a month.

01:21These Noida workers, some of them in their 30s with years on the factory floor,

01:26are earning less than India's entry-level jobs.

01:28Less than what a fresher makes at their first test job.

01:32And they're working harder, longer and in conditions that no fresher would accept.

01:39Workers protested in Noida's Husayari complex on April 10th.

01:43Many workers told reporters they could not afford their gas cylinders.

01:46Look at the gas.

01:46I'm getting 1,500 rupees.

01:48I'm getting 4 days.

01:49We're selling it for 9,000 rupees.

01:51What will we do for 9,000 rupees?

01:53By day 4, there were burning vehicles, tear gas and 300 arrests.

01:57The UP government's response?

01:59Blame Pakistan.

02:15The workers' response was simpler.

02:17Same work, same inflation, same war, but different salary.

02:20Why?

02:21That's a question the middle class and the Yogi government does not have good answers to.

02:25What do you think?

02:26I'm going to share with you.

02:27First things fast.