Situation of Laborers during emergency

Under the Emergency rules, workers were denied the right to strike. But the industrialists were given a free hand to dismiss employees. They laid off about 500,000 workers within six months after the declaration of Emergency. Anti-working class ordinances were issued curtailing the workers' minimum bonus from 8.33 per cent of the earnings to 4 per cent. It was not surprising therefore that the Indian industrialists at home, as well as the World Bank abroad, applauded these Emergency measures of the Indira Gandhi government. The large scale Indian private sector industrialists, like the Birlas and the Tatas, welcomed her industrial policies, and the Western-dominated Aid India consortium promised her government an aid of $ 1,600 million - a record of sorts in those days.