New Delhi, November 26
To mark the 5th anniversary of the beginning of the historic farmers’ struggle, the farmers and workers across India held protest demonstrations at state and district level today. On behalf of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), a Memorandum was also submitted to the President of India Droupadi Murmu stating that even after assurances by the union government, their demands remains unfulfilled.
The memorandum, a copy of which was also released to media mentioned that for the last 5 years the farmers of India have waited patiently for the union government to fulfil the assurances but unfortunately the government has instituted measures that further ruined the economical sustenance of farmers and eroded agricultural self-reliance and food security of the country. “The PM’s promise in 2017 to double the income of the farmers by 2022 has been proved a damp squib. Rather the cost of production has been doubled while cost of living tripled. Agrarian crisis has intensified, leading to pauperisation, dispossession and a hazardous situation in which the peasantry has been forced to join the rank of rural to urban distress migration”, reads the memorandum.
The SKM pointed out that government has unleashed a flood of attacks on the working people such as the National Policy Framework of Agricultural Marketing, the National Cooperation Policy, the Electricity Bill 2025, the Seeds Bill 2025 and scrapping 11 per cent import tariff on cotton. “Latest in this series of onslaught is the notification of the 4 labour Codes that have legalised fixed term employment, 12 hour’s work day and denial of right to union and to strike. If the government continues to ignore and neglect the burning demands, then the masses belong to farmers and workers have no option other than resort to massive, peaceful, protracted result oriented struggles”, the SKM observed, while listing the complete charter of farmers demands in the memorandum.
