Mumbai: Thousands of workers gathered at Azad Maidan on Monday, June 1, as the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) launched a three-day statewide protest over the demands of organised and unorganised
sector labourers.
Visuals shared by IANS showed women workers protesting at the site, filled with banners and placards. The demonstrators raised slogans demanding improved wages, job security, and enhanced social welfare measures.
Who Is Participating?
The union said more than 30,000 workers from across Maharashtra, including industrial workers, contract employees, ASHA and Anganwadi workers, construction labourers, auto-rickshaw drivers, and hawkers, are participating.
What Are Their Demands?
Protesters are demanding a minimum monthly wage of Rs 30,000, regularisation of contract workers, implementation of equal pay for equal work, social security benefits, and the withdrawal of the new labour codes.
Apart from Mumbai, Maratha reservation activist Manoj Jarange began an indefinite hunger strike at Antarwali Sarati village in Jalna district on Saturday after talks with the state government failed to produce an agreement on several key demands.
The activist began the fast in Antarwali Sarati village, about 400 km from Mumbai, in the open without any canopy or protective shelter despite the intense heat. The development came after lengthy discussions between Jarange and a government delegation led by Cabinet Sub-Committee Chairman Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, which failed to reach a breakthrough. The talks continued late into the night, with both sides discussing possible written assurances from the government on various demands raised by the Maratha community.
Jarange renewed his demand for the issuance of Kunbi caste certificates to members of the Maratha community to avail the OBC quota, implementation of the Hyderabad and Satara Gazette records, and withdrawal of cases registered against Maratha protesters who participated in the reservation agitation. He has also sought the creation of a ministry for the Maratha community on the lines of the one for the Other Backward Classes (OBC).
