Labour Reforms in a Neo-liberal Setting: Lessons from India

Abstract

On 26 November 2020, ten central trade unions in India went on a nation-wide strike to protest against anti-working-class policies of the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre. Their main grievances were directed towards the recently passed four labour codes and three farm laws, among others. In fact, farmers are currently holding a historic demonstration and have occupied the expressways near the nation’s capital at Singhu, Tikri, Ghazipur and Palwal; they plan to march into the capital on 26 January 2021. It appears then, every section of the working population is opposing the economic policies of the government, which incidentally has resulted in low to negative output growth and an unprecedented surge in open unemployment rates. Although we shall briefly discuss the resistance emerging against the farm laws, our main concern in this article is about the political roots and implications of labour law changes.