Farmers Movement Archive

Punjab ‘farm widows’ rally with pics of dead to highlight crisis

JALANDHAR/BATHINDA/PATIALA: The ‘Dilli Chalo’ move by farm groups is attracting farmers and non-farmers alike in Punjab. It is gathering pace even over 20 days since the protest began despite the December chill and deaths of some of the protesters. Farm union leaders said they have been going by a ‘one person from one family’ policy, but people have been flocking to Delhi on their own too. On Tuesday, widows of farmers who committed suicide due to debt or other agriculture-related issues, left for Delhi’s Tikri border carrying photographs of their deceased family members. They will stay for some days in the pandals of farm organisation BKU (Ekta Ugrahan). District and tehsil units were asked to prepare lists of farm suicide-hit families, asking them to keep information ready on when the farmer committed suicide, the reason and how he took his life. If debt was the reason, families have been asked to collect details of the debt amount, landholding of the family, and whether the family received any compensation. “The governments are portraying a rosy picture of farmers in Punjab though the reality is otherwise. Victim families will narrate their tales of woes at Delhi. We want their voices to be heard,” said farm organisation BKU Ekta Ugrahan vice-president Jhanda Singh Jethuke. Farm unions claimed that thousands of farmers were committing suicide in Punjab every year, but most of these are not recorded. The National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data shows that nearly 300 farmers and farm labourers have ended their lives in Punjab in four years. To boost the agitation at Delhi borders, the farmers in numerous villages are moving towards Delhi under village-level committees. “Every fifth day, a group of 25 farmers is being sent to Delhi in a bus or van, in which a few of the protesters return after spending a week at Delhi borders,” said Kahlemajra sarpanch Bhupinder Singh. Sukhdev Singh Kokari Kalan, BKU Ekta Ugrahan Punjab general secretary said, “Around six buses carrying families of farm suicide victims from Sangrur, two buses each from Mansa and Barnala, one bus each from Patiala and Moga and three buses and two tractors from Bathinda have already left for Delhi.”

The Times of India

2020-12-16

India