The supervisor’s words had a bigger chilling effect than the bevy of cops who stood near the factory gate. “Aisa kaam karna hai toh kal se kaam pe mat aiye (No need to come to work if you do anything like this)” Two days before this advice, Pushparaj Singh had walked out in solidarity with fellow workers at his factory in Noida, responding to calls to join protests demanding higher wages. Personally, it channelled three years of frustration since dropping out of his BSc (agriculture) course and coming to Noida from Kanpur for a job, hoping to cash in on the post-Covid economic rebound.
With his spoken fluency, Pushparaj hoped for an office job. But the best that came his way was that of an “unskilled worker” at the factory floor of pen manufacturer Luxor. Now a line reader who checks finished products, Pushparaj earns a fixed wage of Rs 11,313 a month, with which he must support himself in Noida and his family back home in Kanpur.