We take a look at a national shut-down organised by the farmers’ movement and trade unions, protests demanding unemployment and against last year’s labor laws, and the latest in the COVID-19 situation

Organizers of the historic general strike said the arrest of 31 leaders of trade unions and farmers’ movements in the State of Haryana would not dampen the protests. Over 200 million workers and hundreds of thousands of farmers will take part in the protest

These are the latest in a wave of protests against the refusal to increase wages, increasing contractualization of workforce, dilution and dismantling of protective labor laws, price rise and unemployment, and other such policies of the Modi govt.

The States of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, all of which are ruled by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, have issued a number of ordinances exempting employers from following labor laws that protect workers’ jobs and wages

Earnings are gone, jobs are gone, hunger is met by handouts and the Modi government is using the pandemic lockdown to push through more oppressive conditions on workers to please India Inc.

The new Industrial Relations Code changes forever the security of having a job. Now employees will be at the mercy of employers

Trade unions said the working class in Kashmir, both domestic and migrant, was paid better minimum wages in comparison to many other States. They also said the step by the Indian government would lead to regressive labor laws being implemented in Kashmir