Job insecurity gives way to India's 1st IT workers union in Tamil Nadu

Previous attempts to organise 2.8 million employees of the country's IT sector have failed

In 2008, as Tamil Nadu erupted in angry protests against the killings of Sri Lankan Tamils during that country’s civil war, a group of young software professionals in Chennai’s Tidel Park banded together to form a human chain. “Stop the War, Save Tamils” was their demand – a slogan that featured on posters, T-shirts and Orkut posts.

Nine years later, their agitation has led to the formation of India’s first independent union for information technology employees. Amid reports of large-scale layoffs by several Indian software firms companies, the Forum for Information Technology Employees, which evolved from the campaign to protect Tamils