New Delhi: More than 70 artisans employed in the embroidery and other industrial units in the textile industry, including two prominent labour union representatives, in and around Surat were detained while staging a satyagraha on Thursday (October 15), demanding a paid weekly day-off on Sunday, regulated eight-hour workday and timely wage payment and a hike.According to reports, around 10,000 workers employed in embroidery and other industrial units across Surat had given a call for a mass satyagraha at the collector’s office in Athwalines on Thursday.Police buses and vans were deployed in large numbers in several parts of the city to prevent groups of workers and activists from assembling or travelling towards Athwalines. As the workers gathered near the collector’s office to press their demands, police moved in, citing a lack of official permission and detained many workers. In videos posted on X, Dilip Kshtriya, a journalist with The New Indian Express, showed the chaos that erupted outside the collector’s office after detentions.According to a Times of India report, the detentions began early in the morning and continued until the afternoon. Worker’s leaders Suresh Sonavane and Malkhan Verma were among those detained. They were taken to Pandesara police station, the report said.The demandsThe protests erupted due to the factory owners’ repeated failure to address the workers’ demands that include a weekly off for the workers, and that wages should be paid between the first and seventh of the month as required by law. Despite raising these issues for nearly four months, the workers have been unable to secure any resolution.Notably, Surat is one of the country’s major textile and embroidery hubs. The agitation began in August. They started at embroidery units in Amroli and gradually spread to other industrial areas of the city, and then to other parts of the district.“We have decided to hold a peaceful satyagraha at the Collector’s Office tomorrow and have called on 10,000 workers to join it. We are trying to ensure that Surat’s factories continue operating while the workers’ satyagraha also succeeds,” said Naishadh Desai, president of Gujarat Pradesh INTUC and leader of the agitation, as reported by Bhaskar English.According to Desai, labour rights activists had held a meeting on Sunday and decided to submit a representation to the district collector on Thursday. He added Dubey Sonavane and Verma had sought police permission to submit the representation but were denied and arrested one after the other, as reported by The Times of India.He added: “We have only two clear main demands: first, workers should be given a weekly day off; and second, wages should be paid between the first and seventh of every month, as required by law. Despite submitting memoranda three times earlier, the chamber, the Factory Inspector and the Labour Commissioner have not sat down with the workers or adopted a conciliatory approach.” ‘Fired for asking for a Sunday’Anand Kushwaha, who lost his job after demanding a weekly Sunday holiday, alleged that the factory owners were circulating videos to discourage other employers from hiring these workers. He added, “They accuse us of instigating others and say that leave will not be granted. I have been unemployed and sitting at home for the past one and a half months. Countless workers like me have been dismissed in this unjust manner,“ he told the daily. Anand Kushwaha said that he had been without work for one and a half months and was borrowing Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 from friends and relatives to support his family. The workers have made it clear that their fight is not against an individual factory owner but the government machinery that has failed to enforce the law.Kushwaha further alleged, “Despite personally submitting written representations to the Collector and the Labour Department three times, no action has been taken to date. If the administration does not intervene in time and ensure that the rules on leave and wages are implemented in accordance with the law, this agitation will intensify across Surat.” The protest also comes days after Union textiles minister Giriraj Singh visited Surat on October 9 and played down concerns over workers returning to their native villages in search of employment.“Mill owners and workers are two sides of the same coin. The ideal relationship is one in which the mill owner treats the worker as family, and the worker considers the mill owner part of the family,” the minister had said.The issue extends beyond this single protest for the Gujarat textile sector.The demands raise questions about the enforcement of labour protections, the treatment of migrant workers and the balance between industrial production and workers’ rights.