Why Bengaluru Went Berserk Over New PF Rules

Bengaluru: The proposed Provident Fund rules of the Centre, outlined in this year's budget, found little favour anywhere, but it was south's IT capital Bengaluru that erupted over it. The rule was withdrawn on Tuesday.

Despite being prepared for protests, the police admitted to being caught by surprise by its scale.

For two days, thousands of garment factory workers - many of them women -- gathered on major highways on the outskirts of the city, set buses on fire and clashed with the police. Lathicharges were held and many, including some police personnel, were injured.

Condemning the police action on the protests, leaders of garment factory workers union said most of the protesters were women and it was the anti-socials who had started the clash.
 "I don't know why they had to resort to lathicharge... at least if the officers had come and spoken to the workers... they are women workers," Mr Jayaram, a senior official of the Garment and Textile Workers Union, told NDTV.

"Morning to evening they are working in the factory... difficult to throw a stones at buildings and buses, some anti-social elements came and took position. Bangalore police don't support garment workers?" Home Minister, G Parameshwara, defended the police.

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"Look at the situation. There were more than 5 to 7,000 protestors attacking this police station," he told NDTV. "Our intelligence told us there would be a protest. Nobody visualised this magnitude. All of a sudden, (there were) a number of women."

Around 5 to 6 lakh people work in the garment sector in Karnataka. Around 4 lakh of them are in Bengaluru. And being in the organised sector, most are covered by Provident Fund rules. Many of the women, the union leaders said, retire before they turn 58 years old and prefer to withdraw their Provident Fund money.

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But according to the proposed rules announced during the budget, one had to wait till the age of 58 to claim or withdraw the money in the Provident Fund.

In his Budget speech, Mr Jaitley had also announced that 60 per cent of the amount in the provident fund will be taxed when the account was emptied. The plan had to be shelved after middle class expressed outrage.