Won’t budge till Modi listens to us, say women farmers braving winter chill at Delhi border

Women farmers are among protesters from Punjab and Haryana who are camping at Singhu and Tikri borders of Delhi, defiant in their resolve to make the government listen to them.

A women farmer at the Singhu border | Photo: Manisha Mondal | ThePrint

New Delhi: Thousands of protesting farmers from Haryana and Punjab remained camped at the Singhu and Tikri borders (on the Haryana side of Delhi) as the stalemate between the central government and farmer leaders on the new farm laws continued Monday.

Among them are many women farmers who, like their male counterparts, have been raising their voices since October, when protests first began across Punjab and Haryana.

Women of all age groups reached the Delhi border, some via tractors and others on foot, and remained defiant in their resolve to make the government hear their pleas.

“Assi eithon nahi hilange. Modi ko humari baat sunni padegi (We won’t budge. Modi has to hear us out),” said one of the women farmers.

ThePrint’s senior multimedia journalist Manisha Mondal, who spoke to some of these women farmers at the Singhu border, brings us snapshots.

Punjab and Haryana farmers have been protesting against the Centre’s three new farm laws since October but the stalemate between the central government and the farmer leaders continues | Photo: Manisha Mondal | ThePrint

Many women farmers participating in the agitation fear that inclusion of private players, facilitated by the new farm laws, will hamper their businesses further | Photo: Manisha Mondal | ThePrint

Thousands of farmers reached Delhi early Friday as part of their ‘Delhi Chalo’ march, which started on 26 November and was meant to culminate in a protest in central Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan or Jantar Mantar | Photo: Manisha Mondal | ThePrint

Young and old women farmers are participating in the protest against the new farm laws | Photo: Manisha Mondal | ThePrint

The protests are being coordinated by 30 farmer organisations | Photo: Manisha Mondal | ThePrint

The women are resolute that their side of the argument be heard. Many have said they will not move until the government revoke the three contentious laws approved by Parliament in September | Photo: Manisha Mondal | ThePrint

The laws change the way Indian farmers have done business for years by removing a network of government-controlled agricultural markets | Photo: Manisha Mondal | ThePrint

Home Minister Amit Shah Sunday said the government was for the welfare of farmers and appealed to farmers to shift to their protest from the borders to the Burari ground in the national capital | Photo: Manisha Mondal | ThePrint

The farmers have been braving cold nights as they camp outside the national capital. Delhi recorded the coldest November in 71 years, the IMD said Monday | Photo: Manisha Mondal | ThePrint