Trade unions in India
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Trade unions in India are registered and file annual returns under the Trade Union Act (1926). Statistics on trade unions are collected annually by the Labour Bureau of the Ministry of Labour, Government of India. According to the data released for 2012, there were 16,154 trade unions with a combined membership of 9.18 million, based on returns from 15 states out of a total of 28 states and 9 union territories. The trade union movement in India is largely divided along political lines and follows a pre-Independence pattern of overlapping interactions between political parties and unions. The net result of this system is debated, as it has both advantages and disadvantages. According to data submitted by various trade unions to the Ministry of Labour and Employment as part of a survey, INTUC, with a combined membership of 33.3 million, emerged as the largest trade union in India as of 2013.
Firm or industry-level trade unions are often affiliated with larger federations. The largest federations in the country, which represent labour at the national level, are known as central trade union organisations (CTUOs). As of 2002, when the last trade union verification was carried out, there were 12 CTUOs recognised by the Ministry of Labour.
History
The establishment of textile and clothing mills around the port cities of Bombay (now Mumbai), Calcutta (now Kolkata), Madras (now Chennai), and Surat in the latter half of the 19th century marked the beginnings of the industrial workforce in India.
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