[WSMDiscuss] India in movement…, Farmers in movement… : Fwd: Manifesto of Indian Farmers / भारतीय किसानों का घोषणापत्र / Why the farmers want to march again (Rishi Majumder)

Wed Dec 5 21:18:17 CET 2018

EN / HIN

Wednesday, December 5, 2018

India in movement…, Farmers in movement…

[This last week, on November 29-30 2018, more than one hundred thousand farmers from all over India converged in the country’s capital and on the country’s Parliament.  This march followed the march by some 40,000 Adivasi and other farmers from around the state of Maharashtra on the state capital Mumbai, in late March 2018 (on which I did a post). 

[As the second item in this post – an article by Rishi Majumder – explains, they did so :

“…to demand a three-week session of Parliament to discuss the agrarian crisis.

“Constituent units of this movement in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai are mobilising not just farmers and agricultural workers but journalists, students, bankers, tech workers, anganwadi [construction labourers’ child care centres], building and domestic workers’ unions and even policemen groups and associations to support their cause.

“The underlying message is simple. If over 3,00,000 debt-ridden farmers have committed suicide in the past 25 years, then the agrarian crisis is no longer an economic one. It is a moral crisis. It cannot be allowed to continue.

“According to the 2011 census, 144.3 million Indians live by agricultural labour and 118.7 million Indians are farmers - those who own or rent the land to farm on.”

[emphasis given]

[I am somehow sure in my mind that I did a post on the recent march during this last week, just before they converged on Delhi – I certainly meant to – but for whatever reason (probably because I've been travelling a lot) I seem not to have.  My apologies to all those who might have wanted to know about his historic march as it was happening.  To make up, here then is the text of the Manifesto adopted by the farmers while they were in Delhi, and also an article that attempts to explain – if one can ever really ‘explain’ such things - the situation and why they marched :

Manifesto of Indian Farmers 
Adopted by an assembly representing the farmers of India on the occasion of the historic Kisan Mukti March organised by the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee
Delhi, 30 November 2018
WE, THE FARMERS OF INDIA,
The producers of primary agricultural commodities; 
Including Women, Dalit, Nomadic and Adivasi farmers;
Landowners, Tenants, Sharecroppers, Agricultural Labourers and Plantation Workers; 
Fishworkers, Milk Producers, Poultry Farmers, Livestock Rearers, Pastoralists, and Collectors of Minor Forest Produce; and,
Everyone engaged in crop cultivation, shifting cultivation, apiculture, sericulture, vermiculture, and agro-forestry…
Why the farmers want to march again

1 lakh farmers and farm labourers plan to march towards Parliament on November 30. But what do they want ?

Rishi Majumder

            Thanks, Kavitha Kuruganti, for posting the Manifesto.

            JS

fwd

> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: Kavitha Kuruganti <kavitakuruganti at gmail.com <mailto:kavitakuruganti at gmail.com>>
> Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2018 at 19:51
> Subject: [vikalp-sangam-list] Manifesto of Indian Farmers / भारतीय किसानों का घोषणापत्र
> To: asha-kisanswaraj <asha-kisanswaraj at googlegroups.com <mailto:asha-kisanswaraj at googlegroups.com>>, gmfreeindia <gmfreeindia at googlegroups.com <mailto:gmfreeindia at googlegroups.com>>, gmfreemaharashtra <gmfreemaharashtra at googlegroups.com <mailto:gmfreemaharashtra at googlegroups.com>>, gmfreeodisha <gmfreeodisha at googlegroups.com <mailto:gmfreeodisha at googlegroups.com>>, safe-food-alliance <safe-food-alliance at googlegroups.com <mailto:safe-food-alliance at googlegroups.com>>, wbgmfreefora <wbgmfreefora at googlegroups.com <mailto:wbgmfreefora at googlegroups.com>>, punjabeco-crisis <punjabeco-crisis at googlegroups.com <mailto:punjabeco-crisis at googlegroups.com>>, forum-against-ftas at googlegroups.com <mailto:forum-against-ftas at googlegroups.com> <forum-against-ftas at googlegroups.com <mailto:forum-against-ftas at googlegroups.com>>, makaam <makaam at googlegroups.com <mailto:makaam at googlegroups.com>>, nation4farmers <nation4farmers at googlegroups.com <mailto:nation4farmers at googlegroups.com>>, kisan-swaraj-ap <kisan-swaraj-ap at googlegroups.com <mailto:kisan-swaraj-ap at googlegroups.com>>, Rra-india <rra-india at googlegroups.com <mailto:rra-india at googlegroups.com>>, vikalp-sangam-list <vikalp-sangam-list at googlegroups.com <mailto:vikalp-sangam-list at googlegroups.com>>, gm-free-karnataka at googlegroups.com <mailto:gm-free-karnataka at googlegroups.com> <gm-free-karnataka at googlegroups.com <mailto:gm-free-karnataka at googlegroups.com>>, <agrarian-rural-studies at googlegroups.com <mailto:agrarian-rural-studies at googlegroups.com>>

MANIFESTO OF INDIAN FARMERS 

Adopted by an assembly representing the farmers of India on the occasion of the historic Kisan Mukti March organised by the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee
Delhi, 30 November 2018

WE, THE FARMERS OF INDIA,
The producers of primary agricultural commodities; 
Including Women, Dalit, Nomadic and Adivasi farmers;
Landowners, Tenants, Sharecroppers, Agricultural Labourers and Plantation Workers; 
Fishworkers, Milk Producers, Poultry Farmers, Livestock Rearers, Pastoralists, and Collectors of Minor Forest Produce; and,
Everyone engaged in crop cultivation, shifting cultivation, apiculture, sericulture, vermiculture, and agro-forestry;

CONVINCED THAT
Wellbeing of farmers is not just about economic survival of a majority of Indian households, it is about retaining our national dignity and our civilizational heritage;
Farmers are not just a residue from our past; farmers, agriculture and village community are integral to the future of India and the world; and,
The demands of the farmers’ movements are fully consistent with our Constitutional vision, Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of State Policy;

RECOGNISING OUR RESPONSIBILITY
As honest hard workers who face numerous odds;
As bearers of historical knowledge, skills and culture;
As agents of food safety, security and sovereignty; and
As guardians of biodiversity and ecological sustainability;

RECALLING THE PRINCIPLES OF 
Economic viability;
Ecological sustainability; and
Equality with social and economic justice;

YET ALARMED AT
Economic, ecological, social and existential crisis of Indian agriculture;
Ecological degradation and destruction affecting farmers and their livelihoods;
Unprecedented increase in diversion and destruction of agricultural land, privatization of water, forced displacement, deprivation and migration affecting security of food and livelihood;
Persistent state of neglect of agriculture and discrimination against farming communities;
Increasing vulnerability of farmers to extortion by the village powerful and government officials;
Deepening penetration of large, predatory and profiteering corporations that are already in control of significant sectors of Indian agriculture;
Spate of farmers’ suicides across the country and unbearable burden of indebtedness; 
Widening disparities between farmers and other sectors in our society; and,
Growing attack of the governments on the farmers’ struggles;

SOLEMNLY AFFIRM OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO
Life and dignified livelihood;
Social security and protection against natural and other calamities; 
Land, water, forest and all natural resources including common property resources;
Diversity in seeds, food systems and sustainable technological choices; and,
Freedom of expression, organisation, representation and struggle through constitutional means for realisation of our demands and shaping our future;

THEREFORE, CALL UPON THE PARLIAMENT OF INDIA TO IMMEDIATELY

Hold a Special Session to address the agrarian crisis by passing and enacting the two Kisan Mukti Bills that are of, by and for the farmers of India, namely,
1. The Farmers’ Freedom from Indebtedness Bill, 2018; and 
2. The Farmers’ Right to Guaranteed Remunerative Minimum Support Prices for Agricultural Commodities Bill, 2018.

AND ALSO DEMAND THAT THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MUST:

1. Increase the number of guaranteed employment days under MGNREGS to 200 days per family, and ensure wage payment within the period guaranteed by statute and at par with legal minimum wages for unskilled farm labour;

2. Reduce the cost of inputs for farmers either by regulating industry price or offering subsidy directly to farmers;

3. Provide comprehensive social security for all farm households including pension @ at least Rs. 5,000 per month per farmer above the age of 60;

4. Universalize the benefits of the Public Distribution System including cereals and nutri-cereals, pulses, sugar and oils without linking it to Aadhar or biometric identification and without shifting to direct cash transfer;

5. Address the menace of stray animals by removing all legal and vigilante-imposed restrictions on cattle trade, compensating farmers for destruction of crops by wild and stray animals and supporting animal shelters;

6. Stop land acquisition or land pooling without informed consent of the farmers; no acquisition or diversion of agricultural land for commercial land development or for creation of land banks; prevent the bypassing or dilution of The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 at the state level; and evolve land use and agricultural land protection policy; 

7. Mandate the sugar mills to pay interest @ 15% p.a. if cane dues are not paid to the cane-growers within 14 days of the delivery of cane;  FRP of cane to be fixed by linking it to 9.5% recovery of sugar;

8. Withdraw pesticides that have been banned elsewhere and not approve GM seeds without a comprehensive needs, alternatives and impact assessment;

9. Disallow Foreign Direct Investment in agriculture and food processing, and remove agriculture from Free Trade Agreements, including the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP);

10. Require identification and registration of all real cultivators including tenant farmers, sharecroppers, women farmers, lessee cultivators and rural workers etc. for purposes of accessing benefits of all government schemes; and

11. Stop uprooting adivasi farmers in the name of afforestation, ensure strict implementation without dilution of Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act and Forests Rights Act, 2006;

AND, FURTHER, URGE THE GOVERNMENT TO EVOLVE POLICIES TO

12. Provide land and livelihood rights to the landless, including agricultural and homestead land, water for fishing, mining of minor minerals etc;

13. Ensure timely, effective and adequate compensation for crop loss due to natural disasters; implement a comprehensive crop insurance that benefits farmers and not just insurance companies and that covers all types of risks for all crops and for all farmers, with individual farm as the unit of damage assessment; reverse anti-farmer changes in the Manual for Drought Management;

14. Build assured protective irrigation through sustainable means for farmers, especially in the rain-fed areas;

15. Ensure remunerative guaranteed prices for milk and its procurement for dairies and to supplement nutritional security through Mid Day Meal Scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme etc; 

16. Waive off all outstanding agricultural loans of farmers from suicide-affected families and provide special opportunities to children of such families;

17. Protect the farmers from corporate plunder in the name of contract farming by reviewing the Contract Farming Act 2018;

18. Promote procurement, processing and marketing under Farmer Producer Organisations and Peasant Cooperatives instead of corporatisation of agriculture and takeover by MNCs; and

19. Promote an agro-ecology paradigm that is based on suitable cropping patterns and local seed diversity revival, so as to build economically viable, ecologically sustainable, autonomous and climate resilient agriculture.

==================================================

भारतीय किसानों का घोषणापत्र

अखिल भारतीय किसान संघर्ष समन्वय समिति द्वारा आयोजित ऐतिहासिक किसान मुक्ति मार्च के अवसर पर किसानों की प्रतिनिधि सभा में अंगीकृत

दिल्ली, 30 नवंबर 2018

हम, भारत के किसान,
प्राथमिक कृषि-जिन्सों के उत्पादक; 
जिसमें महिला, दलित, घुमन्तू और आदिवासी किसान शामिल हैं;
भूस्वामी, पट्टेदार, बंटाईदार, खेतिहर मजदूर तथा बागान श्रमिक; 
मछुआरे, दुग्ध-उत्पादक, मुर्गीपालक, पशुपालक, पशुचारक तथा लघु वनोपज को एकत्र करने वाले; और,
वे सभी जो फसल उगाने, झूम की कृषि करने, मधुमक्खी पालन , रेशम-कीट के पालन, कृमिपालन तथा कृषि-वानिकी के काम में लगे हैं;

दृढ़ मत से मानते हैं कि-
किसानों के कल्याण का अर्थ भारत के अधिसंख्य परिवारों की आर्थिक उत्तरजीविता तक सीमित नहीं, बल्कि इसमें अपनी राष्ट्रीय गरिमा तथा अपनी सभ्यतागत विरासत को धारण करना शामिल है;
किसान कोई अतीत के भग्नावशेष नहीं; 
कृषक, कृषि तथा ग्राम-समुदाय भारत और विश्व के भविष्य का अनिवार्य अंश हैं; और,
किसान-आंदोलनों की मांगें हमारे संविधान के स्वप्न, मौलिक अधिकार तथा राज्य के नीति-निर्देशक तत्वों के मेल में है;

अपने उत्तरदायित्व की पहचान करते हुए-
एक ईमानदार कर्मठ कामगार के रुप में जिसे अनगिनत बाधाओं का सामना करना पड़ता है;
ऐतिहासिक ज्ञान-राशि, कौशल तथा संस्कृति के धारक के रुप में;
खाद्य-सुरक्षा, संरक्षा, संप्रभुता के संदेहवाह के रुप में; और
जैव-विविधता तथा पारिस्थिकीगत टिकाऊपन के संरक्षक के रुप में ;

उन सिद्धांतों को याद करते हुए-  
जिनमें आर्थिक व्यवहार्यता;
पारिस्थिकीय टिकाऊपन; और
सामाजिक-आर्थिक न्याय के साथ समानता की बात कही गई है;

चिन्तित और शंकित हैं-
भारतीय कृषि के आर्थिक, पारिस्थितिकीय, ,सामाजिक तथा अस्तित्वगत संकट से;
किसानों तथा उनकी जीविका को पारिस्थितिकी के अपक्षय तथा विनाश के कारण होते नुकसान से;
कृषि-भूमि के अप्रत्याशित परिवर्तन और विनाश , पानी के निजीकरण , बलात् विस्थापन , वंचना और पलायन के जरिए खाद्य सुरक्षा और जीविका पर पड़ती चोट से;
राजसत्ता की ओर से कृषि की निरंतर होती उपेक्षा और किसान-समुदाय के साथ हो रहे भेदभाव के बरताव से;
गांव के ताकतवर लोगों और सरकारी अधिकारियों की लूट के आगे किसानों की लगातार बढ़ती बेबसी से;
बड़े, आखेट-वृत्ति तथा लाभ के लोभी कारपोरेशनों से जिनका अब भारतीय कृषि के एक व्यापक हिस्से पर नियंत्रण हो चला है;
देश भर में जारी किसान-आत्महत्याओं तथा कर्जे के बढ़ते दुर्वह बोझ से;
किसानों तथा समाज के अन्य तबकों के बीच बढ़ती जा रही असमानता;  तथा,
किसान-संघर्षों पर सरकार के बढ़ते हमलों से;

सत्यनिष्ठा-पूर्वक अपने संविधान-प्रदत्त- 
जीवन और गरिमायुक्त जीविका के अधिकार;
सामाजिक सुरक्षा तथा प्राकृतिक एवं अन्य आपदाओं से बचाव के अधिकार ; 
जमीन, जल, जंगल तथा सामुदायिक संपदा-संसाधन समेत प्राकृतिक संसाधनों के अधिकार;
बीज और आहार-प्रणाली में विविधता तथा टिकाऊ प्रौद्योगिक विकल्पों के चयन के अधिकार; तथा,
अपने मांगों को साकार करने एवं अपने भविष्य गढ़ने के निमित्त अभिव्यक्ति, संगठन, प्रतिनिधित्व तथा संघर्ष के अधिकार की 
घोषणा करते हैं; और

इसी कारण, भारत की संसद का आह्वान करते हैं कि

कृषि-संकट के समाधान के लिए तत्काल एक विशेष सत्र बुलाया जाय जिसमें भारत के किसानों के लिए, भारत के किसानों के हाथो तैयार किसानी के उन दो विधेयकों को पारित और क्रियान्वित किया जाय. जिनके नाम हैं:

1.      किसान कर्ज-मुक्ति विधेयक, 2018; तथा
2.      कृषि-उत्पाद पर गारंटीशुदा लाभकारी न्यूनतम समर्थन मूल्य का अधिकार(किसान) विधेयक, 2018.

साथ ही, हम मांग करते हैं कि भारत सरकार निम्नलिखित की अनिवार्य तौर पर पूर्ति करे:

1.      महात्मा गांधी राष्ट्रीय ग्रामीण रोजगार गारंटी योजना के तंहत गारंटीशुदा रोजगार की अवधि प्रति परिवार बढ़ाकर 200 दिन की जाय, और कानून में निर्दिष्ट समय-सीमा के भीतर पारिश्रमिक का भुगतान हो तथा पारिश्रमिक अकुशल खेतिहर मजदूरी के लिए कानून में निर्धारित न्यूनतम मजदूरी के संगत हो;

2.      औद्योगिक मूल्यों के नियंत्रण के जरिए या फिर प्रत्यक्ष अनुदान के जरिए किसानों के लागत-मूल्य में कमी लायी जाय;

3.      सभी खेतिहर परिवारों को व्यापक सामाजिक सुरक्षा मुहैया की जाय जिसमें 60 साल से ज्यादा उम्र के हर किसान को 5000 रुपये प्रति माह पेंशन देना शामिल है;

4.      आधार अथवा बायोमीट्रिक सत्यापन से बगैर लिंकित किए और प्रत्यक्ष नकदी हस्तांतरण की राह ना अपनाते हुए सार्वजनिक वितरण प्रणाली के लाभों को जिसमें खाद्यान्न तथा मोटहन(पोषक अनाज), दाल, चीनी तथा तेल शामिल है--सार्विक किया जाय;

5.      कानून अथवा सामाजिक निगरानी के मार्फत पशुओं के व्यापार पर आयद सभी प्रतिबंधों को हटाते हुए अवारा पशुओं से पैदा खतरे का समाधान किया जाय, किसानों को जंगली तथा आवारा पशुओं से फसलों को पहुंचे नुकसान की भरपायी हो तथा पशुशाला के निर्माण में मदद मुहैया करायी जाय;

6.      किसान की सचेत सहमति के बगैर भूमि-अधिग्रहण और भूमि-समुच्चयन ना हो; व्यावसायिक भूमि के विकास अथवा भूमि-बैंक के निर्माण के लिए कृषि-भूमि का अधिग्रहण या उसके उपयोग में बदलाव ना किया जाय; भूमि-अधिग्रहण, पुनर्वास तथा पुनर्स्थापना अधिनियम 2013 में वर्णित उचित मुआवजे तथा पारदर्शिता संबंधी अधिकार के राज्य स्तर पर हो रहे हनन या इस कानून के उल्लंघन को रोका जाय; भूमि के उपयोग तथा कृषि-भूमि की सुरक्षा के निमित्त नीति बनायी जाय; 

7.      चीनी मिलों को आदेश दिया जाय कि गन्ना किसानों को गन्ने की बिक्री के 14 दिनों के भीतर अगर वे बकाया नहीं चुकाते तो बकाये की रकम पर 15 फीसद की सालाना दर से सूद दें; गन्ने की एफआरपी चीनी की 9.5 प्रतिशत रिकवरी से जोड़ते हुए निर्धारित की जाय;

8.      जिन कीटनाशकों को अन्यत्र प्रतिबंधित कर दिया गया है उन्हें वापस ले लिया जाय और बगैर व्यापक जरुरत, विकल्प तथा प्रभाव के आकलन के जीन-संवर्धित बीजों को अनुमति ना दी जाय;

9.      खेती तथा खाद्य-प्रसंस्करण में प्रत्यक्ष विदेशी निवेश की अनुमति ना दी जाय, खेती को मुक्त व्यापार समझौते -जिसमें प्रस्तावित रिजनल कंप्रेहेंसिव इकॉनॉमिक पार्टनरशिप(आरसीईपी) भी शामिल है- से हटा लिया जाय;

10.  सरकारी योजनाओं के लाभ प्राप्त करने के निमित्त सभी वास्तविक किसानों का, जिसमें बंटाईदार किसान, महिला किसान, किराये पर खेती करने वाले किसान, पट्टे पर खेती करने वाले किसान तथा ग्रामीण श्रमिक आदि शामिल हैं- पंजीकरण और सत्यापन अनिवार्य हो; तथा

11.  निर्वनीकरण के नाम पर आदिवासियों किसानों को उजाड़ना बंद हो,पंचायत(अनुसूचित क्षेत्रों तक विस्तार) अधिनियम तथा वनाधिकार अधिनियम, 2006 को बिना कमजोर किये सख्ती से लागू किया जाय;

और, आगे सरकार से जोर देकर कहना चाहते हैं कि वह ऐसी नीतियां बनायें जो

12.  भूमिहीनों को भूमि तथा जीविका का अधिकार प्रदान करे जिसमें खेती की जमीन तथा घर की जमीन, मछली मारने के लिए पानी तथा मामूली खनिजों का खनन आदि शामिल है, तथा;

13.  सुनिश्चित हो कि प्राकृतिक आपदा से फसल को हुए नुकसान की भरपायी पर्याप्त, समय पर और कारगर तरीके से होगी; ऐसी व्यापक फसल बीमा अमल में आये जो किसानों को लाभ पहुंचाये ना कि सिर्फ बीमा कंपनियों को और इसमें हर किसान को सभी फसलों के हर किस्म के जोखिम से कवर प्रदान किया जाय, इस फसल बीमा में नुकसान के आकलन के लिए हर खेत को एक इकाई माना जाय, सूखा प्रबंधन से संबंधित नियमावली में हुए किसान-विरोधी परिवर्तनों को वापस लिया जाय;

14.  किसानों के लिए टिकाऊ साधनों के मार्फत सुनिश्चित सुरक्षाकारी सिंचाई की व्यवस्था हो, खासकर वर्षासिंचित इलाकों में;

15.  डेयरी के लिए दूध का उपार्जन तथा दूध पर गारंटीशुदा लाभकारी मूल्य सुनिश्चित हो और मिड डे मील तथा समेकित बाल विकास कार्यक्रम आदि के जरिए पूरक पोषाहार दिया जाय; 

16.  आत्महत्या से प्रभावित किसान-परिवारों के सभी कर्ज माफ हों और ऐसे परिवारों के बच्चों को विशेष अवसर मुहैया कराये जायें;

17.  अनुबंध कृषि अधिनियम(कांट्रैक्ट फार्मिंग एक्ट 2018) का पुनरावलोकन हो और इसके नाम पर हो रही कारपोरेट लूट से किसानों को बचाया जाय;

18.  कृषि के कारपोरेटीकरण तथा कृषि पर बहुराष्ट्रीय निगमों का दबदबा बढ़ाने की जगह कृषक उत्पादक संगठनों तथा कृषक सहकारी समितियों के तहत उपार्जन, प्रसंस्करण तथा विपणन को बढ़ावा दिया जाय; और

19.   खेती-बाड़ी को लेकर एक पारिस्थिकीगत विचार-परिवेश बने जो उपयुक्त फसल-चक्र पर आधारित तथा स्थानीय बीज-विविधता को बढ़ावा देने वाला हो ताकि आर्थिक रुप से व्यवहार्य, पारिस्थिकीय रुप से टिकाऊ, स्वायत्त तथा जलवायु-संबंधी बदलावों को सह सकने में सक्षम कृषि का मार्ग प्रशस्त हो सके.
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===============

KAVITHA KURUGANTI
Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture (ASHA)
Office:A-124/6, First Floor, Katwaria Sarai, New Delhi 110 016
Residence:# 302, Santhome Apartments, 33/1, 1st A Cross, Indiranagar I Stage, Bangalore 560 038
www.kisanswaraj.in <http://www.kisanswaraj.in/>
www.makaam.in <http://www.makaam.in/>
www.ecofarmersmarket.in <http://www.ecofarmersmarket.in/> 
www.tula.org.in <http://www.tula.org.in/>
www.indiagminfo.org <http://www.indiagminfo.org/> & 
www.indiaforsafefood.in <http://www.indiaforsafefood.in/>
Phone: +91-8880067772
Skype: kavitha.kuruganti

Why the farmers want to march again

1 lakh farmers and farm labourers plan to march towards Parliament on November 30. But what do they want?

By Rishi Majumder in Mumbai
https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/why-the-farmers-want-to-march-again/cid/1675828 <https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/why-the-farmers-want-to-march-again/cid/1675828>
Published 19.11.18, 4:07 PM
Updated 19.11.18, 7:30 PM

The Farmer’s Rights Convention organised by the All India Kisan Sabha at the Yashwantrao Chavan Centre in Mumbai on November 12. Photo by Rishi Majumder

 <>We, who are not farmers, tend to think of farmers as a catch-all word. A word that signifies to us a people who work to cultivate something. I have no idea why. I can never see ‘journalists’, for instance, as a catch-all word, even if some others do. This is because I have been a journalist and having seen journalists up close can testify that there are no two journalists I know who are alike. Farmers are like that.

There are farmers’ movements, farmers’ markets and farmers’ issues. This seems to unify them, but it also dehumanises them by a collective othering.

For "us", it creates a "them". Farmers may not be "us". But they aren’t "them" either.

This became apparent to me when I spoke to 24-year-old Shankar Uttam Guhadi at the Farmer’s Rights Convention organised by the All India Kisan Sabha at the Yashwantrao Chavan Centre in Mumbai on November 12.

Guhadi is from Jamrun Andh in the Hingoli district in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad division.

He lives on land bordering a jungle where he and his fellow villagers have been farming for several generations. Yet the government refuses to give them title deeds for the land.

Guhadi, in a white shirt with a fading grey mosaic printed on it and a white cloth that has an ornate but similarly faded border draped around his neck, tries to talk to me in Marathi, then broken Hindi, then holds up several documents that he has amassed to prove his and his family’s claim over the land.

His village elders follow suit. It is a paper trail from the government that they cling on to dearly, hoping these documents will one day lead them to their own land.

There are over 5,000 farmers and agricultural labourers from 23 districts of Maharashtra at this convention.

Those who could not fit into the main hall had been accommodated in two other halls with a screen. Still others could not find a place in either. They were sitting in the porch and lawns, listening in to what was being said on an old but loud speaker.

Many of those present participated in the march eight months ago when around 25,000 farmers and agricultural labourers began walking in Nashik on March 6. Six days and nearly 200 km later, the march ended in Mumbai with over 50,000 participants. The march took not just Mumbai, but India and the national media by storm.

The government accepted some of the significant demands of the marchers --- though a lot of these are yet to be implemented. It reminded me of lines from Mahadevbhai (1892-1942), a play that I was a part of many years ago: “If Gandhiji had gone by train or motorcar to make salt at Dandi, the effect would have been considerable. But to walk for 24 days and rivet the attention of all India. To trek across the countryside subsisting on chana mamada saying, ‘Watch, watch, I’m about to give a signal to the nation.’ And then to pick up a pinch of salt in publicised defiance of the mighty government required imagination, dignity and a sense of showmanship of a great theatrical artiste.”

One of the key resolutions that was passed in this month's convention was that there would be another march organised by the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, a coalition of over 200 farmer organisations, to Delhi. One lakh farmers and agricultural workers, not just from Maharashtra, but from all over the country would come together.

They would gather on the outskirts of Delhi on November 29 and march to Ramlila Maidan. On November 30, they plan to march to Parliament Street to demand a three-week session of Parliament to discuss the agrarian crisis.

Constituent units of this movement in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai are mobilising not just farmers and agricultural workers but journalists, students, bankers, tech workers, anganwadi, building and domestic workers’ unions and even policemen groups and associations to support their cause.

The underlying message is simple. If over 3,00,000 debt-ridden farmers have committed suicide in the past 25 years, then the agrarian crisis is no longer an economic one. It is a moral crisis. It cannot be allowed to continue.

According to the 2011 census, 144.3 million Indians live by agricultural labour and 118.7 million Indians are farmers - those who own or rent the land to farm on.

Shankar Uttam Guhadi at the convention in Mumbai. Photo by Rishi Majumder
In order to explore the contours of this crisis and understand how the long march to Mumbai came to be, the best reading material is available on the internet for free. The Kisan Long March in Maharashtra contains an essay by Ashok Dhawale, currently heading the All India Kisan Sabha, which tells us how the success of the long march drew from years of work and smaller mobilisations in Maharashtra. Also, the Swaminathan report from the National Commission on Farmers is available for download, but a short, succinct summary of it is also online.

By reading these as well as the Dilli Chalo! site constructed for the march to Delhi by a group called Nation for Farmers, one can identify the clear priorities of farmers and agricultural labourers.

Farm loan waivers

Everyone has heard so much about farm loan waivers, and perhaps understood so little that the perception of the farmer in national media has become one of the gambling alcoholic, who is also suicidal and always asking others to pay his/her debts. But read the Swaminathan Report carefully and you will understand how the systems of credit in our country are actually weighed heavily against the poorer and less literate farmers and farm labourers.

The devil lies in the detail.

Holistic awareness of access to credit and its timeliness in rural India has been abysmal. A comprehensive approach to credit, including insurance availability and aid with technology and marketing, is missing.

Remunerative prices and MSP

These are viewed as relief mechanisms, offering marginally better deals than the market. But when the markets are in free fall, the duty of a government is to link remunerative pricing to the cost of production, not the market value. Else, "minimum support" is as good as no support at all.

Land rights and the Forest Rights Act

The National Commission on Farmers found out that 50 per cent of rural households that are among the poorest own only 3 per cent of the farmland, whereas the top 10 per cent own 54 per cent. You may think that similar distributions exist with regard to money too, and no one is raising a hue and cry about that. The difference is that the land, as opposed to money, is the only means of earning for vast swathes of India's rural population.

Also, a lot of the inequality in distribution of land is because of blatant disregard of the law.

The commission also recommended the re-distribution of ceiling-surplus land --- something that should be done by law but is not being implemented --- and wasteland, access to forest land for tribals and pastoralists and mechanisms to regulate the sale and use of agricultural land. Corporates and governments blatantly violate the forest rights act, blocking land rights to tribals and farm workers like Guhadi. Included in this subhead are the rights the rural populace is demanding over temple and pasture land. Pastures or grazing land in Maharashtra have generally been cultivated by Dalit peasants. 

Despite laws being enacted to vest such land in their names, these laws are seldom implemented. Also, peasants cultivating land owned by temple trusts --- this comprises many lakhs of acreage in Maharashtra --- don't get crop loans, irrigation scheme benefits and relief for damage caused by natural calamities because the land is not vested in their name.

Drought relief and pension schemes

The urgency of providing adequate drought relief where huge numbers of our population still exist at the mercy of nature is obvious. As for pensions, we have had state pensions for those below the poverty line and those who are old and disabled for a while now.

The rural poor are in dire need of these pensions for survival. But the pensions on offer are woefully inadequate, so is their distribution. The JAM (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and mobile) schemes brought in to facilitate, among other things, the distribution of such pensions, has only made matters worse. There are thousands of cases of pensioners who have been struck off the beneficiary lists without just cause. Second, age and manual labour has rubbed off the fingerprints of many pensioners so that these don't match with those registered in the database. Alos, point of sale machines often don't work because of poor connectivity in rural areas and low literacy has left the beneficiaries vulnerable to the middlemen or business correspondents who administer the POS machines for delivery of pension.

These are the key issues that unite farmers and landless labourers across the country.

This isn’t just a farmer’s or landless labourer's issue but an issue of human rights. A country that cannot protect its poor, its old and its disabled should really remove the word "socialist" from the Preamble to its Constitution. It should also remove the words "Justice" (economic) and "Equality" (of opportunity).

Besides the challenges listed above, there are other issues equally significant, but which may affect certain farmers and landless labourers in some areas more than others.

These include compensation for losses caused by hailstorms, floods and pest attacks, the forced acquisition of farm land for bullet train projects and super highways, and an inadequate implementation of the public distribution system.

In states such as Maharashtra, river linking schemes submerge the land of tribals and denies water supply to multitudes of farmers.

A pressing issue is the malnutrition of children, especially tribal children. We have to call a spade a spade here. Starvation deaths witnessed in this population group cannot be called anything other than an assault on our Constitution’s Article 21 - the right to life - in its most elemental sense.

But the most important issue, as always, is implementation. An account of a victory rally held after the long march to Mumbai by Sudhanva Deshpande, the managing editor of LeftWord Books, quotes Maharashtra's only CPI(M) MLA Jiva Pandu Gavit telling farmers assembled there: “While this is a historic victory, there is every reason to be vigilant. The track record of this government, and previous governments, hasn’t been anything to write home about. Farmers have been betrayed again and again. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. You have forced the government to concede your demands, but don’t think the implementation will happen without struggle.”

Gavit, who is from a tribal community, is today one of the tallest farmer leaders in Maharashtra. But before joining politics he had worked as an assistant in Maharashtra’s Employment Guarantee Scheme, where he stood witness to how benefits hardly ever reached the beneficiaries.

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Yashwantabai from Palghar district at the farmers' convention in Mumbai. Photo by Rishi Majumder
Gavit’s words resound in the image of Yashwantabai from Wada in Palghar district that is in Maharashtra’s Konkan division.

Yashwantabai is over 70 years old. She is wearing a dark green sari, a light green blouse and her face wears an expression that is a mix of anger and confusion.

She calls a man who knows Hindi to help her convey what she is trying to say. “The government has decided that my village in Wada is not drought affected,” she says, “whereas it is.”

She can’t believe that something that was, to her, the most obvious fact, could be written over with the stroke of a pen.

Yashwantabai’s tale of disbelief and despair is the tale of the over one lakh farmers and farm labourers who will be marching to Delhi. They are ever vigilant. They will not stop walking. 

Rishi Majumder is a freelance writer. He has worked as the managing editor at Vice India, senior editor at The Big Indian Picture and principal correspondent for the Tehelka magazine. 

______________________________

Jai Sen

jai.sen at cacim.net <mailto:jai.sen at cacim.net>
www.cacim.net <http://www.cacim.net/> / http://www.openword.net.in

Now based in New Delhi, India (+91-98189 11325) and in Ottawa, Canada, on unceded Anishinaabe territory (+1-613-282 2900) 

CURRENT / NEW publications :

Jai Sen, ed, 2018a – The Movements of Movements, Part 2 : Rethinking Our Dance. New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA : PM Press.  Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press <http://www.pmpress.org/> and in Canada at www.leftwingbooks <http://www.leftwingbooks/>
Jai Sen, ed, 2018b – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ?, Indian edition.  New Delhi : Authors Upfront, in collaboration with OpenWord and PM Press.  Hard copy available at MOM1AmazonIN <https://www.amazon.in/dp/9387280101/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1522884070&sr=8-2&keywords=movements+of+movements+jai+sen>, MOM1Flipkart <https://www.flipkart.com/the-movements-of-movements/p/itmf3zg7h79ecpgj?pid=9789387280106&lid=LSTBOK9789387280106NBA1CH&marketplace=FLIPKART&srno=s_1_1&otracker=search&fm=SEARCH&iid=ff35b702-e6a8-4423-b014-16c84f6f0092.9789387280106.SEARCH&ppt=Search%20Page>, and MOM1AUpFront <http://www.authorsupfront.com/movements.htm>
Jai Sen, ed, 2017 – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ?.  New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA : PM Press.  Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press <http://www.pmpress.org/> and in Canada at www.leftwingbooks <http://www.leftwingbooks/>
Recent publications :

Jai Sen, ed, 2016a  – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ?  and Jai Sen, ed, 2016b – The Movements of Movements, Part 2 : Rethinking Our Dance (both forthcoming in 2017 from New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA : PM Press), ADVANCE PREFINAL ONLINE MOVEMENT EDITIONS of all the material @ www.cacim.net <http://www.cacim.net/>
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