In what is believed to be the biggest protest in history, in late November 2020 farmers from across India drove 200,000 trolleys and tractors towards Delhi’s borders in a mass protest against agricultural reforms. This was followed a few days later by a general strike involving 250 million people in both urban and rural areas of India as workers joined together to support the farmers.
The strike continues, despite the global public health crisis, which is hitting India harder than any other country in the world. Fear of COVID-19 has not deterred farmers, who have emphatically stated that regardless of whether they contract the virus, the “black laws” will kill them anyway.
How a women-led bilingual publication reports on the Indian farmers’ protests
Sangeet Toor, co-founder of ‘Karti Darthi’, explains how she and her colleagues hope to spread political awareness beyond the current crisis
Women farmers protest on International Women s Day at Bahadurgar, India. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
Raksha Kumar
For close to four months now, farmers from the agrarian states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh have camped on the borders of Delhi. They are protesting three farm laws hastily passed by the Indian government in September 2020.
Farm unions are demanding a repeal of the laws. They claim they will affect their livelihoods and open up the agricultural sector for corporate exploitation. The central government has proposed to suspend the laws for 18 months, a proposal farmers unions have rejected.
Thousands of Indian women join protests in Delhi against oppressive agricultural laws theglobeandmail.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theglobeandmail.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Women farmers now have the space to write their own stories of protest – and more
A newsletter focused on women has sprung up at the protest sites on the Delhi border. Its ambitions are larger. Women farmers from Punjab read the first edition of the Karti Dharti newsletter. | Tanushree Bhasin
At Bahadurgarh near one of the largest farmer protest sites on the Delhi border, a small group of women lay on charpoys in the afternoon sun in mid-February, listening to an article being read out to them. It was about young labour activist Nodeep Kaur, who has been in jail for nearly five weeks for organising workers near another farmer protest site. Published as the cover story of a newly-founded biweekly Punjabi newsletter called
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1 Womenâs participation in farmersâ protests is being seen as a life-altering moment. Tribune photo: Mukesh Aggarwal
Geetanjali Gayatri
History is replete with stories of their heroism because valour runs in the Punjabi blood. But, unfortunately, so does patriarchy. And, there is absolutely no dearth of ghastly tales of honour killing, of female foeticide, of subjugation of the fairer sex and worse. These, however, are dark alleys and just not the place to be when the frost in the air gives way and spring is knocking, when the fields are yellow with mustard flowers, when the wheat crop stretches endlessly like a carpet of green and farmers await its shiny golden hues.