Bharat Bandh: More than 25 crore workers anticipated to join, public services expected to be disrupted on Wednesday.

More than 25 crore laborers – spanning industries such as banking, insurance, postal services, and coal mining – are anticipated to take part in a countrywide general strike on Wednesday. The protest, initiated by a collective of 10 central trade unions, is termed a ‘Bharat Bandh’ aimed at opposing what the unions refer to as “anti-worker, anti-farmer, and anti-national pro-corporate policies” of the national government.

The trade unions have urged to “ensure the nationwide general strike is a tremendous success,” highlighting months of thorough preparations in both formal and informal sectors. Over 25 crore workers are anticipated to participate in the strike. “Farmers and rural laborers will participate in the nationwide protest as well,” said Amarjeet Kaur from the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) to news agency .

Central to the turmoil is a set of 17 demands presented by the unions to Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya the previous year. The unions assert that the government has disregarded these requests and has not held the annual labour conference for the last ten years – an action they argue shows the government’s indifference towards the workforce.

In a collective statement, the forum claimed that the government’s labor reforms, which include the implementation of four new labor codes, are intended to diminish workers’ rights. Unions contend that these codes seek to undermine collective bargaining, diminish union operations, extend working hours, and protect employers from responsibility regarding labour laws.
Trade unions have been fighting against “privatisation of public sector enterprises and public services, policies of outsourcing, contractorisation and casualisation of workforce”, it said.

The four labour codes approved by Parliament aim to stifle and weaken the trade union movement, extend working hours, take away workers’ rights to collective bargaining and to strike, and decriminalize employers’ breaches of labour laws, the statement noted.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha and the coalition of agricultural workers unions have expressed their backing for this strike and have resolved to organize large-scale mobilizations in rural India, according to union leaders. Earlier, trade unions noted comparable nationwide strikes on November 26, 2020, March 28-29, 2022, and February 16 of the previous year.