On 27th of September, 2020, Rajya Sabha passed two farm bills. The bills are the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020.
Farmers protesting in late November
“Just like the big fish eat small fish, big businesses will eat us up now.”
Widows and relatives of farmers who have killed themselves over debt, at protest
On the face of it, India’s farmers shouldn’t be complaining about the passage of these bills, but these laws haven’t gone down well with the farmers. In fact, they had been protesting even before the bills were passed by the parliament. They have had grievances for some years now; more than half of India’s population work on farms but farming accounts for less than a sixth of India’s GDP. The anger over this injustice had been brewing, and now it is getting channelised through protests against these new laws. The farmers fear that the next step from the government’s side would be to do away with the government procurement process and the MSP. This is going to hurt the bigger farmers from Punjab and Haryana, who benefit stupendously from this.
The farmers in Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh had been protesting for weeks, they cooked and slept on the roads in the cold. They were joined by families and friends while people across the country have shown their anger through widespread media coverage and awareness campaigns on the internet. Moreover, they also came face to face with tear gas and water cannons as well.
Women protesting against the bills
It is an undisputed fact that the farmers were not consulted by the central government at the time of promulgating the ordinances, and while pushing the bills through the parliament. And in spite of it being perceived as anti-farmers, the union has by-passed it, even though it falls under the domain of the state government. This can also lead to the exploitation of farmers at the hands of big businesses and also poses a significant challenge to small farmers who constitute 86% of the agricultural class in India. The new farm laws also exclude the jurisdiction of the civil court, leaving the farmers with no independent medium of dispute redressal system and remedylessness.
The farmers believe that their actions are justified in doubting the government when it asserts that the three farm laws in question will help the farmers, and that they have every right to protest about issues that will directly affect them in the long run. The food on our plates is never for free and therefore agriculture is, and always has been a political issue. What Indian agriculture needs right now is structural reforms with consultations from the farmers, the central stakeholders and the opposing parties. What India needs is more than a mere rewriting of regulations.
