3 min readNew DelhiApr 14, 2026 04:17 PM IST
A day after factory workers took to the streets in Noida seeking a wage hike in the wake of rising prices, hundreds of domestic workers protested outside Cleo County in Sector 121 — they, too, demanded an increase in their salaries.
The women said their protest was spontaneous after a few of them gathered outside the residential society at 7 am on Tuesday. “We were talking about the videos we saw from yesterday’s protest on social media… After that, we realised that none of our wages had risen in the last few years either,” said Archana, one of the workers gathered there.
They said they were not aware that the government sets minimum wage limits for factory workers. “We were shocked to see that the government has set Rs 700 per day as the limit. Why don’t we come under that rule?” asked Rekha.
According to Archana, most domestic workers at Cleo County come from Garhi Chowkhandi, an urban village on the opposite side of the high-rise residential society. “At least 1,500-2,000 women work in these houses. We get, at most, Rs 3,000 from one house for cooking and cleaning. When we tried asking our employers to raise the salary by Rs 1,000, they told us they’ll bar our entry into the society if we act difficult,” she alleged.
Workers said there are at least 26 towers with 120 flats in each.
The threat to bar their entry into the society, said the workers, allegedly enraged them and they subsequently decided to protest outside.
“Each household in this society earns Rs 3-4 lakh a month. Why do they have such a big problem when we ask them to increase our wages by a few thousand?” said Rekha.
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She added that in the last few months, living costs had exponentially increased. “Our rents have gone up by Rs 2,000-3,000. I had to buy an LPG cylinder for Rs 4,000 a few days ago. How are we supposed to survive when everything is expensive but our wages remain the same?” said Archana.
After a few hours of protest, police allegedly lathicharged workers to disperse them. Pushpa, who was one of the workers protesting, claimed her gold nose pin was ripped out when a policeman roughly snatched the dupatta covering her face. “That alone has cost me Rs 3,000,” she claimed.
When the workers demanded an audience with the society’s admin, they were allegedly mocked. “They told us to go make our demands to the government. Do they think we’re stupid? We know we don’t come under any government agency. We know that they (the residents) have all the power to increase or decrease our salary,” said Archana.
Some of the workers who stayed outside the society till late afternoon said they will not work until residents agree to pay them more.
