Largest strike in human history is taking place in India
Nurses shout anti-government slogans during a protest (Picture: Reuters)
Around 180 million public sector workers took to the streets of India yesterday in what is considered to be the largest strike in human history.

Thousands of state-run banks, government offices and factories were closed as people protested against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s economic policies.
Public transport was heavily disrupted by the walkout that was organised by ten trade unions on Friday, reports Aljazeera.
State bank employees, school teachers, postal workers, miners and construction workers, were among the crowd demanding that Modi’s plans be dropped.

Why are people striking?

Modi revealed plans to push for greater privatisation. If imposed, the government would close unproductive factories, raise the cap on foreign investments and sell off stakes in state-run companies.
But the unions want to see the plans dumped.
They also want social security and healthcare guaranteed for all and an increase in minimum wage.


Quoting another source, Common Dreams of September 2, 2016: 

Al Jazeera reports that union officials "said about 180 million workers, including state bank employees, school teachers, postal workers, miners, and construction workers, were participating, but the figure could not be independently verified." 
Prof. Jayati Ghosh, a development economist at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi," said Modi's changes had built on a 25-year neoliberal reform agenda that had left workers across the country worse off," according to the Guardian.
"Less than four percent of workers in India come under labor protection, and even those protections have become more and more eroded. There's a general sense that instead of targeting poverty they are targeting the poor, and there has been a real running down of spending on essential public services," Ghosh told the Guardian.