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NEW DELHI: Millions of Indian workers on Monday started a two-day countrywide strike in favor of their demands from the government. Essential services related to banking, transportation, railways, and electricity are likely to be impacted in several states due to the strike.
The workers are angry over the state economic policies and they are demanding more rights for industrial workers, employees, and formers.
About a dozen of the country’s labour unions that have organised the strike want the government to provide universal social security cover for workers in the vast unorganized sector, hike the minimum wage under its flagship employment guarantee programme and stop the privatization of the public sector banks.
The strikers are also demanding the government halt its plans to monetise state assets.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government says privatising some state-owned banks would overhaul the banking industry and that the asset monetisation model will help raise money to speed up economic growth.
The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, an important trade union affiliated with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, said it won’t be participating in the strike, calling it “politically motivated”.
All Indian Trade Union Congress, one of the largest trade unions in the country, said it was expecting more than 200 million formal and informal workers to join the strike. Demonstrations were planned in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and other major cities.
A number of public sector banks, including India’s largest lender, the state-run State Bank of India, have said that banking services may be affected because many employees are expected to participate in the strike.
