Overview

• The strike called by ten central trade unions has mobilised over 25 crore workers and farmers to oppose policies they view as anti-labour and anti-farmer.
• Union leaders report that 80 percent of the workforce remains in the unorganised sector with 60 percent lacking written contracts and over half missing social security benefits.
• Unemployment has climbed to a 45-year high of 7.5 percent even as more than 30 lakh vacancies in central government departments and PSUs remain unfilled.
• Real wages have failed to keep pace with roughly 6 percent inflation, while stagnant MGNREGA funding, reduced guaranteed workdays and Aadhaar-linked exclusions have stripped millions of rural households of support.
• The central government has not publicly engaged with the unions’ demands or indicated any substantive policy changes in response to the general strike.