Maharashtra's falling labour unrest a reflection of national trend

Strikes and lockouts are down 95% in Maharashtra since 1981

Doctor-turned-unionist Datta Samant’s textile strikes of the early 1980s changed Mumbai’s industrial landscape, involving multiple mills and lakhs of workers. Strikes and lockouts are down 95 per cent since those days, show the latest numbers from the Maharashtra government’s recently released economic survey.

There were 636 total strikes and lockouts in Maharashtra in 1981. This is down to 29 as of 2021, with a corresponding drop in the number of workers involved (see chart 1).

Maharashtra is not isolated in seeing lower labour unrest. National figures show a steady decline even over the last ten years.