Workers at the sit-down protest outside Shahi Exports Pvt Ltd in Nacharam in Hyderabad demanding higher wages from the firm that supplies clothing to global brands like H&M, JCPenny, Levi’s etc.
| Photo Credit: Serish Nanisetti
Hundreds of women workers at an apparel factory sat on the road in the industrial area of Nacharam in Hyderabad on Thursday, demanding higher wages. The factory manufactures clothes for major global brands such as H&M, JCPenney, C&A, Levi’s, among others.
“This is our fourth day of protest. We began the strike on Monday morning when we refused to return to work and started the protest near the gate. Some of us go home, but we will be back tomorrow until our demands are met,” said Padma, who has been working at Shahi Exports Pvt. Ltd. for 13 years. The protest continued late into the night.
Reading a label on a Levi’s denim jacket, Parvathy, a worker of 12 years, said she may have stitched it. “We have stitched labels of JCPenney, H&M, C&A, Levi’s. None of the clothes we stitch are sold in our country. They are expensive and exported from here,” she said. A Tailor Grade II earns ₹11,281, with an additional ₹900 attendance bonus for not missing a day of work in a month.
Braving the biting cold at night and the harsh winter sun during the day, the women sat in small groups on the road and along the roadside, with a few placards pinned to the factory walls. They are demanding a salary increase to ₹15,000, citing rising inflation. “We don’t have a leader. We have been making this demand for some time, but officials refuse to agree,” said another worker.
A handwritten placard in Telugu read: “Maa jeetam enta, nuvvu maku ichey jeetam enta. Endalo memu, AC lo nuvvu. Kashtam maadi, phalitam meeda. Maaku nyayam jargali.” (“How much is our salary and how much do you give us? We stand in the sun while you sit in AC rooms. The labour is ours; the reward is yours. We want justice.”) The placard credits the slogan to Shahi Exports Ltd. Employees.
Shahi Exports has multiple export-oriented manufacturing units including in Odisha, Haryana and Karnataka. “The only one with revenues in the order of a billion dollars. Its customers include much-vaunted clothing brands such as Walmart, Gap Inc., Abercrombie & Fitch, PVH, Uniqlo, H&M, and Nike. Today, Shahi has over 96,000+ full-time employees, ~70% of whom are women, with over 50 cut-to-pack production factories and three processing mills across eight states in India,” says a research document brought out by Foundation for Economic Development in April 2025. I FED is a Delhi-based not-for-profit organisation.
“There has been no trouble. The women are sitting there and protesting. They are not stopping those who want to enter the factory. It has been peaceful,” said a security personnel at the entrance of the factory.
The Hindu has sent a media query to Shahi Exports Pvt Ltd and the story will be updated as and when there is a response.
Published – December 12, 2025 08:42 am IST
