In August 2022 thousands of power-loom workers staged sit-ins in Faisalabad’s Sadhar and Dandhar industrial estates over unpaid wages, rising costs and lack of social protection. The protests lasted more than two weeks and concluded after local mediations that delivered partial concessions on wage adjustments and commitments to discuss longer-term welfare measures.

The protests highlighted the fragility of employment in small loom clusters and accelerated the local conversation on registering workers for social protection schemes. (Reporting: People’s Dispatch)