 Hello and welcome to another episode of Around the World in 8 minutes with People's Dispatch where we bring you news from people's movements and struggles across the world. Today we are reporting from New Delhi, India where informal workers have gathered in the capital's parliament street. This call for Chalo, Delhi or March to Delhi was given by working people's charter and organization of informal workers of India. The workers here have several demands all of which can be summarized into one demand which is universal social security. This includes the right to housing, the right to food, education, health and other basic rights which they are not able to get from the meager wages they receive. Purpose of this protest being held at the same time as the budget is being presented in the parliament is to highlight the fact that since India's independence 70 years ago no budget has allocated sufficient funds to ensure the basic rights of those workers who hold up the country's economy and ensure its progress. The workers here are particularly against the anti-working policies of the Narendra Modi led right wing government at the centre. This government with the Bhartiya Janthaparti in majority has taken steps to dilute the already weak labour laws of the country. Workers in India have been facing very harsh conditions. Due to the rising unemployment particularly in the rural areas they are forced to migrate to cities but they have to accept jobs which pay them a pittance and they get irregular and unfair wages and have to accept poor working conditions. Due to this they often get caught in debt traps in the form of bonded labour then they are not able to go back to their homes or look for alternative sources of work. The government must decide must determine 18,000 rupees as a minimum wage. These are demands we are sitting here and we'll keep shouting we'll be here the entire day we'll sing the songs we'll play we'll shout we have our speakers from across the country and this movement will keep on until election the post-election. We are not concerned about which government is coming to the power our demands have to be made. In the cities where they migrate to the workers are mostly living in informal shanties where they face a constant threat of displacement. So the workers here today are demanding their right to a dignified life. They want the right to housing to be a fundamental right. They want the right to guaranteed pension and the women here are also demanding maternity benefits. Thank you Suranya. In our next story we take you to Ireland where on Wednesday more than 35,000 nurses embark on a strike for better pay. This action is the second major nursing strike in the history of the country. Their demands include fair wages and recruitment of more staff. The strike was called by the Irish nurses and midwives organization the INMO. The striking INMO members withdrew from work for 24 hours providing only life-saving care and emergency services. The nurses decided to strike after the talks between the INMO and government officials failed and the Labour Court chose not to intervene. Nursing unions are demanding equal wages at par with health service grades like physiotherapists whom they currently trail by around Euro 7,000 a year. The strike was fully supported by the unions over 40,000 members at 120 locations across Ireland. The nurses have been overwhelmed by the public support at the picket lines. According to reports there was a massive turnout at the picket lines at various hospitals across the country including Connolly Hospital, Crumbland Hospital, Rotunda Hospital and Temple Street Hospital. Midwives at the pickets of Wexford General Hospital held up humorous placards with slogans like we are having a midlife crisis, push, leo push and make room in your budget. Irish Mirror reported Prime Minister Leo Gratkar's response to the questions in the dual which is the lower house of Irish leo slager regarding the nursing strike. He said he could justify borrowing money to save jobs in case of emergency situations but stressed that he could not borrow cash to fund pay rise for nurses. This statement led to a lot of criticism from parliament members. The Communist Party of Ireland along with various trade unions have also expressed their solidarity with the striking nurses. For more information on the strike we talk to Eugene McCartan, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Ireland. The two main issues currently in Ireland today, one as a major industrial dispute and regarding 30,000 nurses, nursing staff. Also next week there will be an additional complication in the health service where the psychiatric nurses will be also coming out on strike. The nurses going on strike in Ireland today is over pay in terms of conditions. There's been a very sharp deterioration in terms of conditions of working people in Ireland over the last 10 years, decade or more in relation to the whole austerity programme instituted by the government on behalf of the European Union. This follows on from the Irish government. The Irish people were forced to take on board 42% of the European banking debt and so that has led to a huge austerity programme over the last decade. Massive cuts in public health, public services, health, education and various other services. So the nurses have suffered a great pay cut and they are now involved in a case of time to recover some of the losses. And we have to put in context that the whole question of Ireland, what is happening in this moment in time. For example, since 2013 to 2019 the nurses have had a pay increase of in and around 7% over those six, seven years. While at the same time housing costs, for instance to buy a home, the price of housing has gone up by over 64% and also the cost of rents in Ireland now have gone up to over the same period of six or seven years is 61%. So you can see that the cost of living in the firms of getting a shelter, getting homes has gone really out of all control. That's because of a much way of a great speculation and property speculation in the housing market by international investment firms, international speculators. They also, the nurses organisation have announced two further days of strike action this coming week on Tuesday and Thursday and they are preparing to further tidying their industrial action. Last week a number of areas were exempt from strike action by the nurses. The union has now decided in order to intensify the pressure on the government that they will reduce the number of exemptions further to intensify the pressure. This is going to cause huge difficulties for patients, and which the nurses are now very much aware of. But the level of public support for the nursing was absolutely fantastic last week. People come down onto the picket lines, with brought them food and sweets and biscuits and things they got and stood alongside the nurses. The community is against low pay and a community-based organisation also helped out on the picket lines. So right across the board the government has made a widespread public support for the nurses. Here is a group of nurses at Luth County Hospital in Dandamak, singing a protest song to the tune of the popular country's song Wagonville. That's all for this episode of Around the World in 8 Minutes. For more stories and videos about people's movements and struggles, please check out our website peoplesdispatch.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.