‘We can lead a revolution’ — women take centre stage at farmer protests at Singhu border

Farmers declared 18 January as Mahila Kisan Diwas to honour the contribution of women to the protest against Centre's new farm laws.

Women at farmers' protest site at Singhu border near Delhi | Manisha Mondal | ThePrint

New Delhi: On the foggy Monday morning, Singhu border on the national highway that connects Punjab and Delhi looked different. The stage and the audience at the protest site at the border included nearly a thousand women waving green union flags and holding posters that read, ‘A woman’s place is in a revolution’.

Farmers who have been protesting against the Centre’s new farm laws for nearly two months declared 18 January as Mahila Kisan Diwas to honour the contribution of women — often regarded as the invisible workforce in the agriculture sector — to the agitation.

Women’s participation and role in the agriculture sector is one that has historically been overlooked. With issues ranging from lack of recognition to absence of land rights, the agricultural sector has given rise to decades of struggle for women.

“We have been fighting against the new laws since 5 June, back when they were just ordinances. Women have had a history of struggle in the agriculture industry because very few of us are actually allowed to own any land. These laws will only compound our difficulties,” Bhartiya Kisan Union Krantikari’s state committee member Sukhwinder Kaur told ThePrint.

Not only have women taken over the responsibility of farming back home as the men protest at the Delhi borders, juggling between running the household and feeding their children, they also remain abreast of all that is happening through awareness drives. “Women have become extremely aware in the past few months. There is a big dharna in Delhi, but there are hundreds in Punjab, most of which are managed by women,” Kaur added.

“The number of women at various protest sights at Delhi’s borders has been increasing steadily. Till today, women are not seen as farmers or those related to farming. Their celebration in the form of Mahila Kisan Diwas was a very important move,” Dr. Navkiran Natt, a student activist, told ThePrint.

Women’s participation in agriculture sector

According to a 2018 Oxfam report, 80 per cent of all economically active women work in the agriculture industry — 33 per cent of them in the agriculture labour force while 48 per cent are self-employed farmers. “They remain central to farming, where they do most of the sowing, transplantation, harvesting, food processing, and more.” Moreover, of the 85 per cent rural women involved in agriculture, only 13 per cent own land.

“Women are already cornered in this industry because we don’t own any land,” Kaur said. She underlined an even graver concern: “If women are unable to run their households, they will be forced into prostitution. Every time there is an agrarian crisis, women are impacted first and the most.”

Natt said: “When we talk about women’s participation in agriculture, we only address those directly involved in farming. There is an even greater number of women involved indirectly — for example, domestic work where women cook food in bulk for the labourers who work in the farms.”

Aditi Yagnik, Associate Coordinator for Organizing at SEWA Bharat, a labour union of self-employed women in the informal economy, believes that the farm laws will only make an “already vulnerable category of workers” more vulnerable. Not only do the labour codes not address domestic workers, women are not even considered ‘farmers’ but ‘cultivators’ and therefore miss out on “institutional credit for farming or farming subsidies”.

“If farming will be handed over to the corporate industry, women involved in indirect domestic work will be rendered jobless,” Natt said.

In 2018, 10,000 farmers participated in the Kisan Mukti (Farmer’s Liberation) march to push for the Women Farmers’ Entitlement Bill, but to no avail. “Our fight is still in its nascent stages, we are yet to convince many within our own state that women have as much of a right in the agricultural industry as men,” she added.

Labour force

While farmers have been voicing their concerns, labourers have also joined the fight against the laws, which they believe have only made their existing conditions worse.

“Dalits make up 35 per cent of the labour force in Punjab, majority of whom are involved in farming and are women,” Devi Kumari, member of Punjab Khet Mazdoor Sabha, told ThePrint. “The three black laws will hit us harder than it will hit the farmers. If corporations are allowed to enter the system, we will be robbed of small perks our employers give us such as wheat for Rs 2 per kg and 400 units of electricity to our homes,” she added.

“When the government introduced these laws in Parliament, they didn’t think about what would happen to us. They didn’t suggest alternative means for us to earn money, nor did they consult anyone in the industry. Labourers are often driven to suicide because they are unable to repay their debts,” Kumari said.

According to the 2019 National Crime Record Bureau data, India’s agriculture sector accounted for 7.9 per cent of the total suicides, with more labourers than farmers dying due to suicide in 17 states.

‘We can lead a revolution’

On 12 January, the Supreme Court passed an order staying the implementation of the three farm laws, hailed by many as a ‘win’ for the farmers. But on the same day, Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde remarked why women are being “kept” at the protest sites, suggesting they must return to their homes.

Anganwadi Employees Federation of India’s national president Hargobind Kaur said, “We are not so weak that the SC needs to pity us like this. We can run and lead a revolution just like we run the farms back home.”

Farmers’ protest at Delhi’s borders will soon complete two months but a stalemate with the Centre continues. Scheduled to carry out a tractor rally on 26 January, their demands remain the same — to repeal the three farm laws.