Bharat Bandh: Over 25 crore workers joined strike, say trade unions

Normal life was not affected in most parts of the country due to a nationwide strike called by several trade unions to protest against labour policies of the central government, though some sporadic incidents of violence were reported from West Bengal.

However, the trade unions claimed that the strike was successful, and a large number of workers abstained from work, impacting the postal, banking, insurance, and mining sectors. They claimed that more than 25 crore workers were being mobilised for the "general strike" in protest against the new labour codes, along with other issues.

Although the agitation remained by and large peaceful, reports of violence were received from pockets of West Bengal after Left-wing activists clashed with police and TMC supporters in various districts.

In a statement, a forum of 10 trade unions said there was a bandh-like situation in many areas of the country, like Puducherry, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Kerala, West Bengal, Odisha, Karnataka, Goa, Meghalaya, and Manipur etc. Reports of partial bandhs were also received in many segments of Rajasthan, Haryana, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh, among others.

There were industrial and sectoral strikes held in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Gujarat, it added.

They have called the one-day strike in support of their demand for doing away with four labour codes, contractualisation, privatisation of PSUs, increasing minimum wages to Rs 26,000 per month, as well as the demands of farmer organisations for minimum support price for crops based on Swaminathan commission's formula of C2 plus 50 per cent, and loan waiver for farmers. The forum had last year submitted a 17-point demand to Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

The government has not been conducting the annual labour conference for the last 10 years, the forum claimed.

In the national capital, the markets across the national capital remained open on Wednesday, and the bandh had no impact on Delhi's commercial activity, said the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT)."All 700 markets and 56 industrial areas in Delhi are functioning as usual," said CTI chairman Brijesh Goyal.

There were reports of the strike impacting a few select services in Kerala, Jharkhand, and Puducherry.

Many parts of Kerala, ruled by the CPI(M), came to a standstill due to the strike. The strike has received strong support from trade unions and Left-leaning organisations in the state.

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