For example, on December 3, 2018, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the city administration, issued a notification to evict the slum dwellers in Kundalahalli, which sparked massive mobilization by the residents, supported by the traditional trade union CITU, lawyers, and other human rights organizations, alongside tech workers navigating these spaces. On December 6, a stay order was issued by the Karnataka High Court, temporarily halting the eviction. This event fostered the development of political trust between the slum dwellers and the traditional trade unions, as well as other supporting actors. From that point onward, Bengali tech workers, as part of AIITEU, became involved in sustained political mobilization of the slum dwellers, including their participation in the all-India general strike organized by trade unions in January 2019.
On February 13, 2019, in Munnekollal, Bengaluru, 25 homes of migrant workers from West Bengal and Tripura were bulldozed. Armed goons attacked and ransacked the homes, injuring a woman and a child. The workers suspect the attack was orchestrated by the local MLA, driven by Hindutva politics, with the intention of targeting these individuals as “illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.“ When traditional trade unions and tech workers who had been organising the slum dwellers, approached the Labour Department for support, officials dismissed the incident as a petty land dispute rather than acknowledging it as a labour issue. This context paved the way for articulations of migrant labour organising around the right to the city and the demand for dignified social citizenship.
In India’s labour organizing context, which is deeply entangled with partisan politics, focusing on social citizenship also carried significant political implications. As Sumit said;
“During the effort of eviction we got to know it was the local BJP MLA who sent his musclemen to attack this slum people. The Hindutva goons are always behind these people [Muslim migrant workers], this can’t be solved with one protest or two protests.. It needs continuous political intervention for longer period.”
Similarly Dipak said:
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