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Articles · Member, Working Women Subcommittee, EEFI

A triumph of unity: the Maharashtra anti-privatisation struggle

Jasmin Banu

January 2023. Eighty-six thousand Mahavitaran workers. Seventy-two hours. The parallel licence in Bhandup Circle was withdrawn.

Public power on the street — the line of the Maharashtra strike.
Public power on the street — the line of the Maharashtra strike.

In January 2023 the Maharashtra government moved a parallel distribution licence for the Adani group in Navi Mumbai’s Bhandup Circle. All 32 unions of Mahavitaran brought 86,000 workers out for 72 hours from 4 January.

Two months of preparation stood behind that strike. Door-to-door work. Public meetings. EEFI called solidarity across the country. PGWFI said energy workers would move together if the sale went through. On 23 December more than 35,000 permanent and contract workers marched on the Nagpur Assembly. On 2 January ten thousand marched in Thane. MESMA was invoked. The strike still held.

The government stepped back. That is not a permanent shield. The Centre still wants a law that makes parallel licensing the rule. Maharashtra showed the method: prepare the public, hold the unions as one, keep contract and regular workers on the same road, and be ready the next morning.