Farmers Movement Archive

Over 2k women farmers from Uttarakhand to join protest in Delhi with their children

Nainital: As talks between the farmers agitating against the three new farm laws and the central government remain inconclusive, several women farmers from Uttarakhand’s Udham Singh Nagar district — which falls under the Terai region that is hailed as the ‘rice bowl’ of the state — have decided to join the ongoing protests near Delhi border (at Ghazipur) from Thursday. The women farmers said that they will even take their children – some as young as one-year-old – to the protest site and stage a sit-in until the Centre withdraws the three contentious laws. Since the start of these protests, these women have been taking care of the crops in the absence of their husbands. However, they too have now decided to join their men and demand the Centre to take back the laws. Navreet Kaur (40), whose husband is already at the Ghazipur border, said that she has made all arrangements with regards to her 10-acre field – sown with wheat and sugarcane – and will leave for Delhi on Thursday evening. Kaur said that she will also take her 10-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter to the protest site. “My husband left for Delhi last month. He has been at the border since and in his absence, I was taking care of the crops. Now, with the winter showers helping our crop, I too can join the protest,” said Kaur, who holds a MA degree in Political Science. Another woman farmer Anureet Kaur Maan (36) from Udham Singh Nagar’s Sitarganj town said that she too will take her three children – a one-and-a-half-year-old son, a four-year-old and a 10-year-old daughter — to Delhi to take part in the protest. “We do not mind sitting in the rainfall or sleeping in trollies. Thousands of farmers are already there. It is now important that our children get to see how unfair these bills are for us,” Maan said. She further said that they will not leave the protest site until their demands are met. “I know that our crops require care but if the government does not accede to our demands, our sit-in protest will continue indefinitely. Even if our crops rot in the fields, we won’t budge until our demands are met. Repealing these laws is more important than saving the produce of a season,” Maan added. When asked what they will do if police prevent them from going towards Delhi, the women farmers said that they will stage a protest at the spot where they are stopped by the cops. “We know that the government is going to take each and every step to stop us. We will try to avoid them but if we are left with no choice, we have decided to stage a sit-in protest at the spot where we are stopped,” said Navreet Kaur. Meanwhile, the farmer leaders said that they expect over two thousand women from Uttarakhand to turn up at the protests in the next few days and 20 buses have also been deployed to take these women to protest sites. “We already have thousands of farmers from Uttarakhand and we expect at least a couple thousand women to join the protest in the next few days. Therefore, we have arranged for 20 buses which will ferry the women farmers to the protest sites. Their support will be of immense help in the protest,” said Tejinder Singh Virk, president, Terai Kisan Sangathan.

The Times of India

2021-01-07

Dehradun