Pressure groups in India: business, labour, farmers, professions and communities

Detail

What a pressure group is

• Pressure group: an organised group of people who share an interest. It tries to change government policy, but it does not fight elections or try to take power.
• A political party wants to win elections and run the government.

• A pressure group only wants to influence whoever is in power.

• Two kinds (Class 10, Political Parties):

• Sectional interest groups speak for one section of society, such as workers, business people or doctors.

• Promotional (public-interest) groups speak for a cause that helps everyone, such as civil liberties.

• Party extensions: many Indian pressure groups are set up or led by party leaders. They work as the "arms" of a party. Most trade unions and student bodies are examples.

1. Business pressure groups

• Peak bodies (federations of many firms across sectors):

Body	Founded	Note
ASSOCHAM (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India)	1920	Oldest all-India chamber
FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry)	1927	Set up with support from G.D. Birla and Purushottamdas Thakurdas; linked to the national movement
CII (Confederation of Indian Industry)	Roots in 1895; present name 1992	Became prominent after the 1991 reforms
NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies)	1988	Sectoral body (speaks for one industry, IT and IT services)

• How they work:
• Pre-budget memoranda: written demands sent to the Finance Ministry before the Union Budget.
• Research reports and surveys on growth, taxes and regulation.
• Industry-government task forces and joint committees.

• Trade-negotiation inputs: advice to the Commerce Ministry during talks on free trade agreements and at the WTO.

• Influence grew after 1991. Liberalisation (opening up the economy and reducing state control) made private industry more central. Ministries now consult these chambers on a regular basis.

• Worries:
• Crony capitalism: business success that comes from being close to people in power, not from competing fairly in the market.
• Corporate political funding: money from companies to parties can buy access. On electoral bonds, see electoral-reforms.

2. Labour: trade unions

• Trade union: a group of workers who bargain together with employers over wages, hours and working conditions. This is called collective bargaining.
• Central trade unions and their party links:

Union	Year	Party link
AITUC (All India Trade Union Congress)	1920	CPI (originally the national-movement union)
INTUC (Indian National Trade Union Congress)	1947	Congress
HMS (Hind Mazdoor Sabha)	1948	Socialist roots
BMS (Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh)	1955	Sangh parivar
CITU (Centre of Indian Trade Unions)	1970	CPI(M)

• The party link is the clearest Indian case of pressure groups as party extensions. When a party splits, its union often splits too. CITU, for example, came out of AITUC after the CPI split of 1964.

The legal framework: from the 1926 Act to the 2020 Code

• Trade Unions Act 1926: gave unions registration (legal identity) and protection from some civil and criminal cases. It is now subsumed in (merged into) the Industrial Relations Code 2020.
• Four Labour Codes, in force from 21 November 2025. Together they replace 29 central labour laws [3]:
• Code on Wages 2019
• Industrial Relations Code 2020
• Code on Social Security 2020

• Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020

• Passage of the IR Code: introduced in the Lok Sabha on 19 September 2020. Passed by the Lok Sabha on 22 September 2020 and by the Rajya Sabha on 23 September 2020 [2].

• Union recognition under the IR Code [2]:
• A union with more than 51% of the workers in an establishment becomes the sole negotiating union. It alone bargains with the employer.

• If no union crosses 51%, a negotiating council is formed. It includes every union with at least 20% of the workers.

• Strike rules under the IR Code [2]:

Step	Rule
1. Notice	14 days' notice before any strike or lock-out, in all establishments
2. Validity	The notice stays valid for at most 60 days
3. Conciliation bar	No strike during conciliation (talks led by a government officer) or for 7 days after it ends
4. Tribunal bar	No strike during a case before a tribunal or for 60 days after it ends

• Other IR Code thresholds [2]:
• Firms with 300 or more workers must have standing orders (written service rules on classifying workers, work hours, termination and grievances).

• Firms with 300 or more workers need prior government permission before a layoff, retrenchment or closure.

• Fixed-term employment (hiring for a set period) is allowed. Fixed-term workers get the same benefits as permanent workers [3].

• Union opposition: central trade unions have held general strikes (nationwide strikes across sectors) against the codes. They object to:
• the strike-notice rule, which now covers all sectors;
• the higher 300-worker threshold for layoffs;
• fixed-term hiring.

• BMS is usually more muted than the Left unions.

• SEWA (Self-Employed Women's Association): founded in 1972 by Ela Bhatt in Ahmedabad. It is a trade union of self-employed women, such as street vendors, home-based workers and labourers. These women are in the informal sector, which has no fixed employer. SEWA proves that unions can organise people outside factories.

3. Farmers: peasant organisations

• All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), 1936: the oldest all-India peasant body. It was born during the national movement and is now linked to the Left.
• Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU): led by Mahendra Singh Tikait of western Uttar Pradesh.
• 1988 Boat Club rally, Delhi: lakhs of farmers camped at the Boat Club lawns near Parliament.
• Demands: higher cane and crop prices, cheaper electricity, loan waivers.

• It showed that rich and middle farmers (often called "bullock capitalists") had become a strong force in politics.

• Shetkari Sanghatana: led by Sharad Joshi in Maharashtra. His slogan was "Bharat vs India": rural, farming Bharat against urban, industrial India. He demanded fair prices and later supported free markets for farm produce.

• Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS): led by M.D. Nanjundaswamy. Known for protests against seed multinationals and the WTO.
• Core issues:
• Crop prices and MSP. MSP (minimum support price) is the price at which the government promises to buy a crop. It sets a floor so farmers are not forced to sell at a loss.
• Credit and debt: loan waivers and cheap institutional credit.
• Power and water: free or cheap electricity and canal water.
• Input subsidies: fertiliser, seed and diesel.

• Land acquisition: fair compensation when the state takes farm land.

• The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (the 2020–21 farm-laws protest) is covered in Section 5.

4. Professional, student, community and rights groups

Professional associations

• Professional association: a body of people in one profession that protects the profession's interests and standards.
• Examples:
• IMA (Indian Medical Association), 1928: lobbies on health policy, medical education and doctors' safety.
• Bar associations: lawyers' bodies at the courts. They often strike or boycott courts on judicial and legal-profession issues.
• Teachers' unions: they work on pay commissions, recruitment and education policy.

Student bodies

• Most student bodies are party extensions:

Body	Year	Link
ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad)	1949	Sangh parivar
SFI (Students' Federation of India)	1970	CPI(M)
NSUI (National Students' Union of India)	1971	Congress
AASU (All Assam Students' Union)	1967	Regional; led the Assam movement (1979–85) against illegal migration, which ended with the Assam Accord 1985 (see regional-aspirations)

Caste, community and religious bodies

• SNDP Yogam (Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam), 1903, Kerala: founded under the inspiration of Sree Narayana Guru. It works for the Ezhava community through social reform, education and representation.
• Nair Service Society (NSS), 1914, Kerala: founded by Mannathu Padmanabhan for the Nair community. It runs schools and colleges.
• SGPC (Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee), 1920: a religious management body that runs Sikh gurdwaras.
• It became statutory (set up under a law) through the Sikh Gurdwaras Act 1925.

• Its members are elected by Sikh voters, which gives it a strong political role in Punjab.

• These bodies show that caste and community associations in India act both as social-reform groups and as vote-bargaining groups.

Civil-liberties watchdogs

• Civil-liberties watchdog: a group that watches the state and defends fundamental rights (such as life, liberty and free speech) against misuse of state power.
• NCERT Class 11 Rights in the Indian Constitution names two of them:
• PUCL (People's Union for Civil Liberties): founded in 1976 during the Emergency (as PUCL&DR, with Jayaprakash Narayan's support) and renamed PUCL in 1980.

• PUDR (People's Union for Democratic Rights): a Delhi-based group that separated from it in 1980.

• PUCL works mainly through PIL (public interest litigation). A PIL is a case filed in court for the public good, not for the petitioner's own benefit.

• PUCL's landmark PILs:

Case	What the court did
PUCL v. Union of India (order of 18 December 1996, reported 1997): telephone tapping	Talking on the phone privately at home or in the office is part of the right to privacy. This falls under Article 21 (right to life and personal liberty). Tapping also affects Article 19(1)(a) (freedom of speech and expression). Tapping under Section 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act 1885 is valid only if it follows a "procedure established by law". The section does not give agencies unlimited power. The court laid down safeguards such as orders only by the Home Secretary and review by a committee [4].
PUCL v. Union of India (2001 onward): right to food	A long case filed during droughts while government godowns were full of grain. Interim orders turned schemes such as mid-day meals, ICDS and the PDS into legal entitlements. This pressure helped produce the National Food Security Act 2013 (Act No. 20 of 2013) [6]. Article 47 (a Directive Principle on raising nutrition and the standard of living) supports the claim.
PUCL v. Union of India (2013): NOTA	NOTA (None of the Above) is a button that lets a voter reject all candidates while keeping the vote secret. The Supreme Court ordered it on 27 September 2013. The ECI added it to EVMs and all ballot papers from 11 October 2013 [5].

5. Assessment: strengths and limits

• Strengths:
• Pressure groups voice interests between elections, when voters have no other formal say.
• They supply expert information to government, such as industry data or medical opinion.

• They help check the misuse of power by the state, for example through PUCL's PILs.

• Limits:

• Unequal capacity: big business and organised workers are well represented. The unorganised poor, such as informal workers, landless labourers and Adivasis, are under-represented.
• Party capture: many unions, student bodies and farmer groups follow party lines, not members' needs.
• Coercive direct action: strikes, bandhs (forced shutdowns), road blockades and court boycotts can hurt ordinary citizens. Direct action means pressing demands through street action instead of talks.
• Narrow interests: a powerful group can win benefits that the public pays for, such as tax breaks or subsidies.

Prelims Hooks

• Founding order: ASSOCHAM (1920) → FICCI (1927) → NASSCOM (1988) → CII (present name 1992, roots in 1895). The trap is assuming CII is the oldest chamber "by name".
• Union–party pairs: AITUC–CPI (1920); INTUC–Congress (1947); BMS–Sangh parivar (1955); CITU–CPI(M) (1970). HMS (1948) has socialist roots.
• The Industrial Relations Code 2020 subsumes the Trade Unions Act 1926. All four Labour Codes came into force on 21 November 2025 and replace 29 central laws [3].
• IR Code: a sole negotiating union needs more than 51% membership. A negotiating council includes unions with at least 20%. Strikes need 14 days' notice, valid for 60 days [2].
• SEWA (1972, Ela Bhatt) is registered as a trade union, not an NGO or a cooperative.
• 1988 Boat Club rally: Mahendra Singh Tikait, Bharatiya Kisan Union. "Bharat vs India": Sharad Joshi, Shetkari Sanghatana.
• SGPC: founded 1920; statutory under the Sikh Gurdwaras Act 1925. SNDP Yogam (1903, Ezhavas) and NSS (1914, Nairs) are both Kerala bodies.
• PUCL was founded in 1976 (Emergency) and renamed in 1980. Its tapping case links privacy to Article 21 and Article 19(1)(a) under Section 5(2), Telegraph Act 1885 [4].
• NOTA: Supreme Court order of 27 September 2013 in PUCL v. Union of India. It was on EVMs from 11 October 2013 [5].

Mains Points

• Pressure groups as a channel for democracy: they give citizens a voice between elections, and PUCL's PILs (privacy 1997, food 2001 onward, NOTA 2013) show civil society widening rights. But unequal capacity tilts policy towards organised business and labour and away from the informal majority. India's informal sector is the large majority of its workforce, yet SEWA-type organisations remain rare.
• Labour Codes debate (GS-II/III):
• Supporters say the codes simplify 29 laws, add negotiating-union rules and ease business [2][3].
• Central unions say the 14-day notice rule, the 300-worker layoff threshold and fixed-term hiring weaken collective bargaining.

• A possible middle path: tripartite consultation (government, employers and unions together, as ILO conventions favour) on the rules framed under the codes.

• Party capture and coercion: party-linked unions and student bodies follow party agendas, while bandhs and court boycotts by bar associations hurt citizens' rights. Possible reforms:

• internal democracy in unions;
• clear rules on lawful protest;

• transparent lobbying, given the crony-capitalism and corporate-funding concerns.

• Farmers' bodies, post-1947 political history (GS-I): they shifted from the Left-led AIKS to rich-farmer movements (BKU, Shetkari Sanghatana) in the 1980s. This shows the rise of the Green Revolution farmer classes and set up the MSP politics of later decades.