The first day of May is significant in various parts of the world for various reasons. We look at the significance of 1 May as Labour Day, Gujarat Day, Maharashtra Day. The Google Doodle today is also dedicated to this day of the year. Here’s is why May Day is significant:
Today we observe the Labour Union movement and celebrate the achievements of workers over the ages. The observance is also referred to as International Workers' Day or Workers' Day or May Day. Today's Google Doodle celebrates the first such observance that dates back to 1886 when activists agitated for an eight hour working day.
It is all the millions of hardworking people toiling away at their jobs that results in the comfort and the ease with which we live life today. It is truly these seemingly unimportant men and women who help to build a nation; who create the lives we live.
The first time May Day was observed in Chennai in 1923; an initiative by the Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan in India. Over the years various leaders and statesmen worked for the rights of workers; a struggle that still continues.
Once a mother, always a mother, felt this Twitter commentator. This tweet draws attention to the fact of the unpaid labours of the homemaker; typically the mother in a family who cooks, cleans and provides nourishment to her family. While she looks after the welfare of the family; the central construct of our social system, she does so without compensation of any sort; constituting the most overlooked aspect of labour in the world.
Even as we celebrate the worker today, this fact is starkly revealed. Workers are still underpaid, subject to exploitation and poor working conditions. Social justice and even a modicum of economic parity are still a distant and unrealistic dream.
Fifty eight years ago today, the former state of Bombay was reorganised to create two separate states: the Guajarati speaking region of Gujarat and the Marathi speaking region of Maharashtra.
Maharashtra is home to Mumbai, India’s financial capital and a melting pot for Indians from everywhere and every walk of life. Mumbai is the city that never sleeps; it is a place that offers an opportunity for everyone.
My home state of Gujarat is unique for many reasons: having a third of the nation's coastline, the only home of the Asiatic Lion in the world, enterprising people who have reached every corner of the globe and as one of the country's safest and most prosperous states.
Actor Aamir Khan roped in Alia Bhatt for a fund raiser event for his Paani Foundation. The organisation aims to help conserve water in the state of drought prone Maharashtra; one of the main reasons for agrarian distress and farmer suicides in the region.
1 May is significant for many of us for ideological reasons or for reasons of regional and linguistic pride. For some of us Labour Day is important because it is a holiday – at least in some parts of the country!
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