A 57-year-old accredited social health activist (ASHA) died in Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district on Tuesday while taking part in a protest as part of the two-day shutdown called by various trade unions across the country.

The deceased has been identified as Shantavva, who was a member of a local labour union in Mundgod town of the district, police said.

“The protest culminated at the tahsildar’s office and she took ill while a memorandum was being submitted to the tahsildar. She was reported to have vomited at the spot and was rushed to the hospital but she passed away,” said superintendent of police Patil Vinayak Vasanthrao.

“We are checking if she was suffering from any illness,” he added.

The shutdown had a mixed response in Karnataka, with government offices and bus services functioning normally in most parts of the state.

“Thousands of trade union members and workers have joined the strike demanding a minimum wage of Rs 18,000 per month and abolishing the contract system among other demands,” All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) leader MD Harigovind said, according to news agency IANS.

Even as thousands of industrial workers, labourers and Anganwadi workers took to the streets of Bengaluru and gathered in front of the Town Hall demanding labour-friendly laws, government offices and bus and metro services remained largely unaffected.

Most of 2,000-odd IT firms and 750 multi-national companies that Bengaluru is home to were open.

Schools and colleges across the state, however, remained shut and exams scheduled were put off. Many commercial establishments and shops, too, remained closed in support of the strike.

First Published: Jan 08, 2019 19:32 IST