Tracing the background for the crisis in the agricultural sector, the analysis states that the National Commission of Farmers headed by Dr. M.S. Swaminathan had clearly stated in its 2006 Report that in order to rescue farmers from the agrarian crisis, they must be paid a remunerative price at least 50% above the comprehensive cost of cultivation C2. However, even after 19 years, these remain hollow promises. Even the MSP announced remains mostly on paper since there is no assured procurement.  There exists a substantial gap between the announced MSP and price realised by farmers.

The cost of cultivation surveys shows that the average price received by paddy farmers was 36% lower than the MSP@ A2+FL in 2021-22 (the latest data available). The average price received by Tur/Arhar (lentil) farmers in Telengana was 11% lower than the MSP in 2021-22. This implies that the benefit of MSP is not reaching to most of the farmers. The long-term data on MSP released by the Ministry of Agriculture shows a deceleration in the growth of real MSP for almost all crops, particularly paddy. For example, the real MSP for paddy grew at an annual rate of 1.17% per annum between 2004–05 and 2013–14, which declined to 0.53% per annum during the period from 2014–15 to 2025–26. Out of the 16 crops studied, 9 crops showed a sharp slowdown in real MSP growth between years 2014–15 to 2025–26. For crops such as Paddy (rice), Maize, Tur/Arhar, Urad (lentils), and Groundnut, the growth rate in the last decade was less than 1% per annum.

The official press release of the Union Government has remained almost silent about paddy, the most important Kharif crop as the inconvenient truth is that its MSP has been increased by a mere ₹69 per quintal. According to the national average cost projected by CACP, the C2+50% price for paddy comes to ₹3,135 per quintal, but the declared MSP is only ₹2,369, which means a loss of ₹766 per quintal. If we look at the cost projected by the states for paddy, it is ₹2787 in Punjab, ₹3673 in Telangana and Rs.4159 in Maharashtra per quintal. These states had recommended MSPs of ₹4,281, ₹5,510, and ₹4,783 per quintal respectively. This clearly shows that in many states, even according to government figures, farmers will struggle to recover their cost of production from paddy crop sales. According to the CACP, across India merely 17.3 per cent of paddy farmers have benefited from procurement at MSP in 2023-24. The paddy procurement at MSP was very meagre in BJP-NDA ruled States like Uttar Pradesh (5.8%), Bihar (4.1%), and Assam (below 5%). Even Congress ruled Karnataka and JMM ruled Jharkhand procured less than 5 per cent of produce from paddy farmers. Most States have also flagged that costs are higher than the CACP cost estimates. Drawing on data from Agricultural Statistics at a Glance for 2023–24 agricultural year, clearly there is a lack of alignment between procurement levels and the increase in MSP. Pertinently, only 0.23 per cent of Tur/Arhar production, 0.72 percent of Groundnut production, and 9.3 per cent of Cotton production has been procured.

The government has made exaggerated claims that the MSP has been increased by ₹820 for Nigerseed, ₹596 for Ragi, ₹589 for Cotton, and ₹579 for Sesamum per quintal. But even these increased prices fall far short of the C2+50% benchmark, and farmers will have to bear heavy losses. The MSP for Nigerseed has been fixed at ₹9,537 per quintal, while the C2+50% price should be ₹12,037 — this means a loss of ₹2,500 per quintal for the farmer.

Similarly, in the case of Ragi, the government has fixed the MSP at ₹4,886 per quintal, but the C2+50% price, as per CACP’s projections, should be ₹5,964 — which means the farmer will get ₹1,078 less per quintal than the C2+50%  price.

Looking at the figures for cotton, the C2+50% price is ₹10,075 per quintal, whereas the government has announced an MSP of only ₹7,710 — compelling the farmer to sell the crop at a loss of ₹2,365 per quintal.

It is notable that the Telangana Government had in 2024-25 demanded ₹16,000 per quintal. In Sesamum, the C2+50% price should be ₹12,948, but the government has declared an MSP of ₹9,537 — resulting in a loss of ₹3,102 per quintal for the farmer.

In Jowar (sorghum), the government-declared MSP is ₹3,699 per quintal, but the C2+50% cost, as per CACP, is ₹4,809 — which means the farmer will receive ₹1,110 less per quintal. Not only this, the CACP-projected cost for Karnataka is ₹3,802, and the state’s projected cost is ₹5,232 per quintal, while Maharashtra’s projected cost is ₹4,163 — meaning that in these states, the income from crop sales will not even cover the cost of cultivation.

The same situation prevails in the case of Bajra (pearl millet) and Maize. The MSP for Bajra has been set at ₹2,775 and for Maize at ₹2,400 per quintal, whereas the C2+50% cost based on CACP’s projections is ₹3,313 and ₹2,928 respectively. Even in Gujarat — Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state — the state government has projected the cost of production for Maize at ₹2,991 and suggested an MSP of ₹4,550. This means that if a Gujarati farmer sells Maize at the Centre’s MSP rates, he will receive ₹591 less than his cost of production.

These losses calculated above are based on government-projected costs. The truth, which everyone knows, is that the actual cost of production is much higher than the cost projected by the CACP. The continuously rising input costs are increasing the farmers’ expenses, but they are not receiving a fair price for their produce. This is the reason behind the prevailing agrarian crisis and the ongoing farmers’ suicides in the country.

The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) has therefore warned the BJP-led Union government to desist from data manipulation and refrain from misleading the public. AIKS calls upon all its units to expose the farcical claims. The AIKS has re-committed itself to unite with farmers’ organisations to launch a fierce movement demanding fair price for crops.

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This essay argues that moving beyond insurance and pension schemes is essential for holistically improving the lives of agricultural labourers. It is crucial to invest in strategies that empower this workforce through skill development, education, and the creation of diverse employment opportunities, enabling them to transition smoothly into non-agricultural sectors and improve their overall well-being.

Defining agricultural labourers

Agricultural labourers are individuals who work on farms or in agricultural activities for wages, rather than operating their own farms. They do not own the land they cultivate nor the tools they utilise. Agricultural labourers provide the manual labour required for various agricultural tasks. They play a critical role in ensuring food security and supporting the livelihoods of millions in rural areas. In India, they represent a substantial portion of the workforce. The 2020-21 Periodic Labour Force Survey reported that 46.5% of people in India are engaged in agricultural activities.

Agricultural labourers are essential to the agricultural sector because they perform tasks vital for food production. These tasks can include:

• Preparing land for cultivation
• Sowing, planting, and transplanting crops
• Maintaining crops through weeding and irrigation
• Harvesting and threshing crops
• Tending to livestock and poultry

While the ongoing shift towards farm mechanisation aims to enhance productivity, it also poses a challenge to the traditional employment patterns of agricultural labourers. This displacement necessitates exploring alternative employment avenues to ensure their continued well-being.

Farm mechanization, reduced labour demand, and potential risks

Farm mechanisation is causing a decline in the demand for manual labour in India by replacing human workers with machines for various tasks. This shift is driven by the need for greater efficiency and output in the agricultural sector. The increasing production of crops like grains, cereals, and oilseeds requires faster and more effective harvesting procedures.

Powered machines help meet this need, enabling farmers to reduce costs and increase yields. As per a 2022 report by Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Food Processing, 47% of agricultural operations in India are now mechanized, highlighting the ongoing transition. Machines are employed in a wide array of agricultural activities, including seed-bed preparation (ploughing, harrowing), sowing and planting (seed drills), inter-culture operations (weeding, fertilizer application), harvesting and threshing (combine harvesters), and irrigation (tube wells, electric and diesel pumps).

The adoption of farm mechanisation offers several benefits, such as cost reduction due to lower labour expenses and faster task completion. Mechanisation also leads to significant savings in seeds and fertilizers, ranging from 15 to 20 percent, at a conservative estimate.[2] It enhances productivity through improved operational speed and precision in tasks like sowing and harvesting. Furthermore, it optimises resource utilization by ensuring the accurate application of seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides, reducing waste and environmental impact. Lastly, it allows for increased cropping intensity and higher yields by enabling farmers to work on larger areas efficiently.

However, this transition to mechanisation poses risks for agricultural labourers who depend on manual work. A study in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh found that a one-unit increase in input costs and machine time led to a decrease of 0.06 and 4.34 units in labour requirements, respectively, demonstrating the direct impact of mechanization on labour demand.[3] As machines take over tasks once done by humans, labourers face potential job displacement, unemployment, and lower wages due to an oversupply of labour in the market. Marginal and small farmers, who constitute a significant proportion of India’s agricultural workforce, may struggle to afford or operate expensive machinery, potentially widening the gap between them and larger, more mechanized farms. The displacement of labourers also necessitates finding alternative employment opportunities and providing skills training to facilitate a smooth transition to non-agricultural sectors.

This shift can lead to an unstable income for agricultural workers, creating financial uncertainty for rural families who depend on these earnings. Establishing alternative employment options beyond agriculture would provide these families with a much-needed safety net, helping them maintain a stable income even as the agricultural landscape changes.

Importance of skill development

To help agricultural workers transition to new job sectors, skill development is key. As traditional agricultural tasks are met with low demands, these workers need training in skills that fit other growing industries, such as manufacturing, construction, or services. Programmes that focus on building these skills would empower agricultural labourers to secure better-paying, sustainable jobs, giving them an opportunity to improve their financial outlook and move beyond agriculture-based income.

The need for steady income sources

A reliable income stream is crucial for the well-being of rural families. When families have a consistent income, they can invest in essentials like education and healthcare, breaking the cycle of poverty and building a brighter future. By fostering employment opportunities outside of agriculture, rural families can reduce their dependence on the land, bringing stability and resilience to rural communities as they adapt to modern agricultural practices.

Schemes-the abundance and the lack

The government has several schemes for agricultural labourers but a good amount of them revolve only around insurance and pension. Insurance is a risk mitigation instrument i.e. it exists to make sure that the person who is insured does not find themselves in worse situation than they are in currently. Pension too supports the current situation rather than helping the person to achieve a better standard of living.

The Indian government has enacted the Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008, to provide social security benefits to workers in the unorganized sector, including agricultural labourers. This act mandates the creation of welfare schemes for unorganized workers, addressing life and disability cover, health and maternity benefits, old age protection, and other benefits determined by the Central Government.

Several specific schemes fall under this act:

Aam Admi Bima Yojana (Department of Financial Services)

Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare)

In addition, there are three other schemes by the Central Government that offer coverage to agricultural labourers:

• Atal Pension Yojana
• Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana-Life Insurance
• Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana-Accident Insurance

Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan Yojana (PM-SYM), launched in 2019, is a pension scheme that provides a monthly pension of Rs. 3000/- to unorganized workers, including landless agricultural labourers, after they reach the age of 60.

Beyond these, other schemes might benefit agricultural labour, but they do not specifically address the loss of employment due to farm mechanisation.

In a reply to a question posed by an MP, which asked about details regarding the shift of people from agriculture to other activities, the government did not provide the details of such shift. Instead of a direct answer, the reply talked about unrelated things and concluded by saying that the Government of India has implemented various initiatives and policies to boost economic growth and employment in the country.
The reply listed initiatives aimed at boosting non-agricultural sectors, including the “Make in India” program, “Start-Up India” initiative, “Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana,” and skill development programs. However, it lacked specific details on how these programs incentivize a shift from agriculture.[4]

This reply also throws light on the fact that the government has been working with scarce data which could affect efficient and effective policy making.

The reason why agricultural labourers need extra protection is because they are deprived of all kinds of resources necessary to get a better life. They are restricted from accessing benefits urbanisation due to lack of capital or skill to move to the city. They are restricted from agriculture due to lack of land etc. Therefore, their lack of resources cannot be solved by placing basic safety nets that barely help them when something bad happens.

A holistic plan-based upliftment must be undertaken to ensure that they do not get left out as the process of farm mechanisation begins to pace up. Specific manufacturing hubs that prioritise employment of women, near villages, incentivising the employment of women along with providing standard health and education facilities can be effective. Only by creating conditions that ensure the improvement in living conditions of agricultural labourers, the goal of restricting unemployment and poverty in rural poor and agricultural labourers can be achieved.

(The author is part of the legal research team of the organisation)

[1] Pib.gov.in. (2024). Agrarian Land. [online] Available at: https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1601902 [Accessed 6 Nov. 2024].

‌[2] Guru, P., Borkar, N., Debnath, M., Chatterjee, D. and Panda, B. (n.d.). Rice mechanization in India: Key to enhance productivity and profitability. [online] Available at: https://krishi.icar.gov.in/jspui/bitstream/123456789/31952/1/2.8.pdf.

[3] Gousiya SK and Suseela K, ‘IMPACT of FARM MECHANIZATION on INCOME and EMPLOYMENT and CONSTRAINTS in MECHANISATION of RICE CULTIVATION in WEST GODAVARI DISTRICT’ (2021) 49 The Journal of Research ANGRAU 107 <https://epubs.icar.org.in/index.php/TJRA/article/view/133453?articlesBySimilarityPage=4> accessed 6 November 2024.

[4] LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.228, 2023 Available at: https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/1714/AS228.pdf?source=pqals

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Among the 38 demands that the Manifesto outlines, the first is Setting up of a Shetkari Kamgar Commission or Agrarian Welfare Commission. This will be a statutory body and comprise not just government officials but eminent independent experts on the agrarian sector. Any new, incoming government must also commit to a special session of the Assembly on the agrarian crisis and related issues, the Manifesto states.

Senior journalist and expert on the rural political economy, P Sainath and scientist Dinesh Abrol released the document.

Empahsising the crucial need to supplement the existing and totally inadequate Minimum Support Price for cash crops like cotton, soybean and sugarcane in Maharashtra with a 20 % bonus, the Manifesto states that both Tamil Nadu and Kerala have long had this practice where the state adds a sum to the Central MSP for their own requirements. (A bonus of 30 % for paddy and 20 % for wheat was announced as PM guarantee in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh during the respective state elections. Why not the same principle in Maharashtra?) Besides, the Farmers Manifesto states that the state should intervene more strongly in the purchase of soya bean and cotton to stabilize the incomes of farmers of Maharashtra.

Besides, the new government must speedily curb the runaway rise in the cost of inputs due to the corporate capture of input production and supply. Maharashtra is in a situation where many farmers did not realize even their production costs across multiple crops last season. Farmers must be compensated for their loss of income. The new government must waive off all outstanding agricultural loans of farmers from suicide-affected families and provide appropriate opportunities to children of all such families.

Recognising the crucial issue of failing agricultural credit, the document states that, “ Mumbai being the headquarters of institutions like NABARD and the financial capital of India, the new government must leverage  its strength to oppose any dilution of apex DFI status of NABARD and ensure that the flow of NABARD concessionary funds are strengthened in the interest of landless, small, marginal farmers and development of people centric cooperative banking in India in general and Maharashtra in particular.

In addition, “The new government will have to take the responsibility of evolving at least 100 bankable models of Integrated farming and processing of farm products to support agro-ecological approaches in the state of Maharashtra. Marketing support by Govt should be part of the plan. The new government will have to ensure an increase in rural branches of banks and increase staff strength to support the holistic development of agriculture and allied sectors.”

The entire detailed document may be read here:

October 28, 2024

Kisan Mazdoor Commission and Nation for Farmers declare a

FARMERS’ MANIFESTO FOR MAHARASHTRA

It is imperative that crucial demands of the agrarian sector feature in the manifestos and debates of all political parties before the elections are held in Maharashtra. There is no state in the country where the impact of the agrarian crisis has taken a greater toll, as for instance, in the distress suicides of farmers. The Kisan Mazdoor Commission and Nation for Farmers believe that all political parties with farmers’ interests at heart should commit themselves to the following:

1. Setting up of a Shetkari Kamgar Commission or Agrarian Welfare Commission. It will be a statutory body and comprise not just government officials but eminent independent experts on the agrarian sector. Any new, incoming government must commit to a special session of the Assembly on the agrarian crisis and related issues.

2. A new government must commit itself to supplementing the existing and totally inadequate Minimum Support Price for cash crops like cotton, soybean and sugarcane in Maharashtra with a 20 % bonus. Tamil Nadu and Kerala have long had this practice where the state adds a sum to the Central MSP for their own requirements. (A bonus of 30 % for paddy and 20 % for wheat was announced as PM guarantee in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh during the respective state elections. Why not the same principle in Maharashtra?) The state should intervene more strongly in the purchase of soya bean and cotton to stabilize the incomes of farmers of Maharashtra.

3. The new government must speedily curb the runaway rise in the cost of inputs due to the corporate capture of input production and supply. Maharashtra is in a situation where many farmers did not realize even their production costs across multiple crops last season. Farmers must be compensated for their loss of income. The new government must waive off all outstanding agricultural loans of farmers from suicide-affected families and provide appropriate opportunities to children of all such families.

4. The new government must waive the debt of small and marginal farmers (owning land less than 10 hectares) to create a clean slate for the holistic development of agricultural and allied sectors in Maharashtra. It must plug the loopholes of the loan waiver process in Maharashtra. The positive process on loan waiver initiated by the Maharashtra government between 2019-2022 was subjected to much damage by the successor government. This must be set right. Agricultural loans must be a right for every farmer.

5. Remunerative prices must be given to all crops including millets, pulses, vegetables, and fruits, milk and other such identifiable produce so that farmers of Maharashtra can move to a developed cropping system while reducing the water footprint.

6. The new government must speedily address land rights issues. For generations, thousands of farmers have been cultivating lands classified as Class 3 Devsthan and Inami lands. These lands are technically owned by the Temple Trusts and as a result, the farmers cannot access any benefits of government agriculture schemes, nor can they create assets such as wells, pipelines, etc. We demand that these land titles be transferred as Class 1 land with the names of the cultivators as owners.

7. In Maharashtra, no government can further delay dealing with the burning issues related to the Forest Rights Act. The new government must stop the uprooting of Adivasi farmers in the name of compensatory afforestation and ensure strict implementation without dilution of Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act and Forest Rights Act, 2006. The government must provide land and livelihood rights to the landless and project-affected people, and give them agricultural and homestead land, water for fishing, cultivation, livestock-rearing and mining of minor minerals. The new government shall set up a dedicated state authority to sort out the implementation of FRA. It shall provide necessary financial and technical help to develop as well as implement a plan for the land forest dwellers get under community forest rights so that they can have a dignified and prosperous life based on Jal, Jangal and Jameen.

8. The government must declare there will be no privatization of water in any form. And that all distribution of water will be equitable and just. An equitable minimum of water, necessary for livelihood, to be provided to every rural family living off agriculture and related livelihoods along the lines of the Atpadi tahsil pattern. Given that the idea originated with him, the new government will call this programme the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Samanyayi Pani Vattap Yojana (Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Equitable Water Distribution Programme).

9. Real cultivators including tenant farmers, sharecroppers, women farmers, lessee cultivators and rural workers will have to be registered immediately to ensure their access to benefits of all schemes for agriculture. The government must identify, recognize, and protect the interests and rights of tenant farmers. Including extending to them the benefits of all official schemes relating to agriculture. The KMC and NFF understand ‘farmer’ to mean and include landed farmers, landless farmers (agricultural labourers), tenant farmers, women farmers, Dalit farmers, Adivasi farmers, livestock (including dairy) farmers, nomadic pastoralists, forest produce gatherers and fisher-folk.

10. The new govt must review the Sagarmala projects and dilution of Coastal Regulation guidelines displacing the fishermen to help corporates in the name of tourism and infrastructure development. It will take all efforts to declare traditional fishermen as scheduled tribes and provide them adequate subsidies for fuel and equipment.

11. A new government must ensure the distribution of Gairan/wasteland grazing land for scheduled caste and scheduled tribe landless labourers. It must also implement measures for land distribution and housing for SC/STs; (enactment Maharashtra GR of 1978 and 1991). Further, it must ensure that the Atrocities Act is strictly implemented to ensure that encroachers on land granted to SCs under this law, are removed and other preventive measures under the law implemented.

12. In 2019, Maharashtra State government formed Gopinath Munde Corporation for Sugarcane. The corporation was to give ID cards to all sugarcane cutters, provide life insurance, accident cover, hostel facilities for children of sugarcane cutters and medical facilities at work, but lies dormant. We demand the Corporation be made active and functional and fulfil its mandate.

13. The new government will have to ensure that every woman in the village wishing to start “parasbaug” cultivation is given 100% subsidy to cultivate the backyards of their houses. Women mostly take care of all domestic work and also take care of children and the elderly and also then do agricultural work on their own farms. They should be given Rs. 5000 per month to compensate for the unpaid work by the state government.

14. The Dongrgaon (Sangola taluka, Solapur district) pattern of collective farming by the Dalit families (who have fragmented small holdings and also highly degraded lands) should be evolved into a generalized system of farming for the farmers of similar means. Greenhouses for protected cultivation should be supported to supplement the incomes. The government will have to monitor caste-based atrocities and ensure land parcels to landless SC/ST labour.

15. The new government should stand against GM food crops until and if their safety has been established through unbiased, neutral, third party studies. It must legally recognise land rights, water rights, bio-resource rights, rights of rivers and abandon projects which include diversion of rivers for so-called interlinking of rivers to protect rights over common property resources. It must withdraw the sanction to pesticides that have been banned elsewhere.

16. The new government will undertake the agenda of health impact assessment of workers doing hazardous (e.g. pesticide spray) work in the case of agriculture and allied sectors. The government will have to announce a policy for the promotion of agro-ecological approaches in cultivation and farming systems being pursued in the state of Maharashtra, and revive local seed diversity, so that farmers can build economically viable, ecologically sustainable, autonomous and climate resilient agriculture.

Land rights

17. Vast areas of agricultural land and forest are being handed over for urban and industrial development without the required assessment of essentiality of SEZs, expressways and due diligence in respect of ecological, social and economic impacts of the neo-colonial type of land and water transfer from the villages to cities and metropolis promoting dependent import and export-oriented development. Land is the progenitor of food and water, a basic for human survival. The new government must enunciate a policy for the restoration of balance and revitalization of health of vital and diverse ecosystems in the state.

18. The new government must immediately stop land acquisition or land pooling without informed consent of farmers; there can be no acquisition or diversion of agricultural land for commercial development or for creation of land banks; it must prevent the bypassing or dilution of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013, at the state level; and evolve land use and agricultural land and common lands protection policy at once to prevent agrarian distress.

Reviewing hydropower and green energy projects and assessing potential vulnerabilities 

19. Massive expansion of pumped storage based in hydropower projects is being planned in the entire western ghat areas of Maharashtra. This would entail construction of new reservoirs either upstream or downstream of the existing reservoirs and can be destructive to the fragile western ghat ecosystem and the lives and livelihoods of people living in these areas. We demand that the new government immediately announce stopping of the projects planned to benefit Adani Green Power. These projects must be reviewed and sanctioned on a case by case basis for any further steps. The new government will have to assess the costs and vulnerabilities of the green energy projects and explore the alternatives for storage and decide how much of pumped storage should be built.

20. The new government should prevent unscientific and undemocratic use of common property resources for green energy projects such as solar panel parks and pump storage. We urgently need a democratic and scientific land and water use policy. The unmet real needs of ecological infrastructure for food, water security and sustainable livelihoods must be prioritized if Maharashtra’s people as a whole are to survive democratically even in the near future. The Shaktipeeth Highway project should be fully scrapped.

Reimplementation of 2015 GR on PDS benefits for families affected by farmers’ suicides 

21. The new government will have to delink benefits of state or central government schemes for agriculture and allied sectors, crop insurance or farm subsidies from land ownership. It must implement the Government Resolution dated June 18, 2019, announced by the state revenue department for women from suicide-hit farm families. That 2015 GR promised public distribution (PDS) benefits for families in 13 districts affected by farmers’ suicides. This GR was cancelled in 2023. We demand immediate restoration of implementation of this GR.

Centre intervention in providing the mandatory medical, life insurance, and loan cover policy for farmers 

22. There must be a complete overhaul of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. Several states have already set up their own, or hybrid schemes (like Gujarat). Insurance in this sector must be run by public providers and not by corporate insurance providers who have milked thousands of crores from the scheme – with little benefit to the farmer. The latest of these scandals is the loot of farmers in Parbhani district. In fact, corporate insurers routinely dismiss lakhs of claims across the country. We demand medical and life insurance cover to all farmers premium of which should be paid by government. Besides, compulsory loan cover policy should be there for all farmers for which the government should pay premium.

Timely crop and livestock compensation due to natural calamities

23. The new government must ensure timely, effective and adequate compensation for crop and livestock loss due to natural disasters; implement comprehensive crop insurance that benefits farmers and not corporations, and which will cover all types of risks for all types of losses in agriculture with the individual farmer as the unit of damage assessment. The new government must reverse anti-farmer changes in the Manual for Drought Management.

24. Agriculture in Maharashtra is increasingly impacted by climate change. The new government must move swiftly to protect the health and safety of farmers and farm workers. For instance, enable the creation of dug out shelters on every farm. This past summer, farm labourers were toiling in temperatures of 45 C and worse. We also demand creation of common storage and shelters to help small farmers and agricultural workers cope with the coming heat waves. Public investment in the management of rainfall and irrigation water to ensure availability of critical moisture for cultivation and livestock rearing and for meeting drinking water needs is a must. The new government must take the required steps to provide protective irrigation through sustainable means for farmers, especially in the rain-fed areas.

To benefit the women farmers the MNREGA wages to not be less than the statewide announced minimum wage

25. The performance of the state in terms of providing work under the MNREGA has moved from poor to dismal. The result is a deepening of agrarian distress. The new government must commit to expanding and deepening the wage rate and number of workdays available to rural households. The wage in MGNREGA should under no circumstances be less than the statewide announced minimum wage. Beyond the MNREGA, landless labourers desperately need other sources of sustenance and support. These would particularly foreground the rights of women landless labourers to small plots of land enabling them to engage in livestock rearing, poultry and kitchen gardens. They must have priority in access to common lands. Women farmers, landed or landless, are in a terrible situation in Maharashtra. The above measures would include full and equal rights of landless farmers to common assets, like water resources, including access to community wells, tubewells, and more. All these above rights would particularly focus on Dalits and Adivasis.

Robust employment and pension schemes

26. We demand a minimum of Rs. 5000/-as pension per month per family of farmer. We demand free education at all schools/colleges/universities for farmer’s children. There should be a policy for reservation of vacancies in agriculture-based industries for farmers’ children. Hostel facilities for farmers’ children should be ensured at taluka and district level for all the relevant places in Maharashtra. The new government must commit to immediately launching a robust pension scheme for small and marginal farmers and agricultural workers. It needs to also rejuvenate and make robust the crumbling public distribution system. The new government will have to ensure remunerative guaranteed prices for milk and eggs and its procurement from dairies and poultry to supplement nutritional security through Mid Day Meal Scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme etc.

27. The new government must introduce a new “Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme” with focus on meeting local milk needs and allowing land use for livestock rearing, waste to wealth, municipal food forests, vegetable gardens, home gardens etc, The new government will have to prepare a 5 year plan for credit with involvement of farmer organisations, urban agriculture producers and local bodies to support a systematic development of rural and urban agriculture.

Leveraging the role of NABARD, cooperative and public sector banks to evolve bankable models of integrated farming practices.

28. Mumbai being the headquarters of institutions like NABARD and the financial capital of India, the new government must leverage  its strength to oppose any dilution of apex DFI status of NABARD and ensure that the flow of NABARD concessionary funds are strengthened in the interest of landless, small, marginal farmers and development of people centric cooperative banking in India in general and Maharashtra in particular.

29. The new government will have to take the responsibility of evolving at least 100 bankable models of Integrated farming and processing of farm products to support agro-ecological approaches in the state of Maharashtra. Marketing support by Govt should be part of the plan. The new government will have to ensure an increase in rural branches of banks and increase staff strength to support the holistic development of agriculture and allied sectors.

30. Public sector Banks (PSBs) should not be privatized to protect the interests of the farmers, and their governing boards should have the representatives of organizations of small and marginal farmers. In the state of Maharashtra, credit deposit ratio should be at least 80% for every branch and every block. The new government will have to stop the banks from collecting bank charges from small depositors. The new government will have to constitute a committee for agricultural and rural credit and recommend steps to remove regional imbalances in banking. The new government will have to give representation to the farmers on state level bankers committee at State level, District level, and block level.

31. Any digital database of farmers being created should be inclusive, and not be limited to land owning farmers. All farmers (as defined by the census, Swaminathan commission, and Doubling Farmers Income committee) should receive benefits of all government schemes for agriculture. The methodology to create such an inclusive database can be announced by taking the best from the process followed by the Governments of Odisha and other such states where the rights of tenant farmers, women farmers and dalit farmers have been recognised.

32. The new Maharashtra government should abandon the Aadhaar Number Database and related National Population Register, the Farmers digital ID-based Database, and resist these and databases like AGRISTACK being handed over to private corporates It must stop biometric profiling based land-titling, and hand over control of data on land and cultivation for open and transparent policy-making and data use by farmers and state, district and village governments. The government must universalize benefits of the Public Distribution System including cereals and nutria-cereals, pulses, sugar and oils without linking it to Aadhaar Number, or biometric identification, and without shifting to direct cash transfer.

33. The new government will have to address the menace of stray animals by removing all legal and vigilante-imposed restrictions on cattle trade, also compensating farmers for the destruction occurring through the invasion of crops by wild animals and supporting proactively animal shelters. There is an urgent need to encourage biomass-based infrastructure development.

34. The new government will announce the review of projects sanctioned in the case of foreign direct investment on open general license by the central government to carry out due diligence on the front of ecological, economic and social impacts, and take up with the central government the issue of removing agriculture from FTAs and WTO negotiations.

35. The new government will have to protect the farmers from corporate plunder in the name of contract farming by reviewing the Contract Farming Act 2018. It must bring a white paper on Farmer Producer Organizations and stop corporatization of agriculture and takeover by MNCs. The new government must stop permission to collect any further data from the farmers of Maharashtra by corporates like ITC, Agribazaar, Amazon, CISCO, ESRI, JIO, Microsoft, NeML, Ninjacart, Digital Green and Partanjali.

36. The policy of no to corporate control in agricultural R&D and innovation domain will have to be implemented in the case of SAUs. R&D and innovation directions will have to be supported by the new government to promote agroecological approaches & biomass based industrialization.

37. The newly launched Shetkari Kamgar / Agrarian Welfare Commission would have to immediately address the dismal conditions of power supply and irrigation in the farm sector. It must begin by ending the loot of these sectors in Maharashtra.

38. The above measures would go way beyond rural benefit to also lessen the pressure in the urban migration crisis of the state. This nature of public investment will have a multiplier effect across Maharashtra. All the above measures would create jobs, regenerate natural resources, enhance well-being, and add to agricultural productivity.

It’s worth remembering that our treatment of farmers, both in Maharashtra and across India stands now for decades in violation of the rights guaranteed to them under the Constitution of India. Fundamentally, the Indian Constitution, through Articles 14, 15 and 19 in Chapter IIII guarantees the Right to Life, Equality before the Law, Life without Discrimination to all Indians, including obviously to every farmer and all peoples working in Rural India. Besides, the Directive Principles of State Policy in Chapter IV guarantee adequate means of livelihood, equitable distribution of material resources, prevention of concentration of wealth all of which assert that Farmer and Rural Workers Rights are Human Rights. Can anyone claim that farmers are in reality enjoying these rights?

And yet, it was the Kisan andolan at the gates of Delhi that defended these rights for all citizens, indeed defended the Constitution itself. It is now our turn to defend these rights for the kisan and mazdoor.

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The post M’tra farmers demand MSP for cash crops like cotton, soybean and sugarcane with 20 % bonus like Tamil Nadu & Kerala: Kisan Manifesto appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The top five states include Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and others. Uttar Pradesh (13,146 cases) reported the highest number of cases of atrocities against Scheduled Castes (SCs) at about 25.82%, which is followed by Rajasthan with 14.7% (7,524) and Madhya Pradesh with 14.1% (7,214) during 2021. The next two states in the list include Bihar accounting for 11.4% (5,842) and Odisha 4.5% (2,327). 

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

A young Dalit student was assaulted and sexually abused at the Banaras Hindu University. According to Hate Detectors’ X page, an FIR has been filed in the case. As per the Mooknayak, the student has sent a written complaint to the Lanka Police Station in connection with police demanding action and has stated that he will leave the university if no action is taken.

In #UttarPradesh‘s #Varanasi, a #Dalit student, resident of #Ahmedabad, #Gujarat, currently pursuing masters from #BHU, Varanasi was allegedly abused, assaulted and attempts of unnatural sex by pulling off his pant was made on him in the university hostel by two suspects on March… pic.twitter.com/kswRdrbbPP

— Hate Detector (@HateDetectors) April 1, 2024

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

Varanasi also saw the death of a 40-year-old sanitation worker from the Dalit community. The man, Ghurelal, died after inhaling toxic and poisonous gases while cleaning a sewer. The death took place at Bhaisapur Ghat in Adampura village. The incident reportedly took place after a complaint about a sewage blockage had taken place, as per the Mooknayak. The outlet reported that over the last 5 years, 400 sanitation workers have died on accidents related to work in sewage systems. While on the job, Ghurelal and a colleague Sunil, went into the sewage after which Sunil emerged from the pit speaking about the presence of poisonous gases. Ghurelal could not return to consciousness even when the medical team arrived and rescued him from the pit. A similar incident had taken place in Tamil Nadu, where two Dalit men died of cleaning a sewage tank.

Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh

A Dalit woman was beaten to death after her goat strayed into a field. The owner of the field had beaten her with a stick after shouting abuses at her. The woman can be seen being beaten brutally in a video that has come up of the incident.

The local police have reportedly started an investigation.

Salem, Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu’s Salem was shocked by violence after members of the Adi Dravidar community, a scheduled caste in the state, were denied entry into a temple on May 2nd during festivities.

The denial of entry to the Mariaman temple at Deevattipatti by the Vanniyar community, which is designated as Most-Backward Caste, led to a violent clash with stone pelting between the two groups. Although major violence has subsided in recent days, sporadic incidents of stone throwing continue, prompting a significant police presence in the area to prevent further escalation.

According to a senior police officer, local police stations have been instructed to monitor purchases of knives and sickles, even for domestic use. In Salem District, shops selling such items have been directed to record the phone numbers and identity card details of buyers. The Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), led by MP Thol Thirumavalam has decided to take a protest march in the area on May 8.

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The post Student, sanitation worker, farmer: Dalit lives across society unsafe appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The aim and objective of the KMC is to go “beyond the recommendations of Swaminathan Commission in the light of challenges arising out of the growing corporate control on the supply of farm inputs resulting in the rising cost of production for farmers and on the markets for agricultural produce leading to the loss of incomes from farming”.

The formation of the commission arose out of discussions held between experts, farmers, labour unions and farm workers’ unions under the banner of ‘Nation for Farmers’ and later morphed into KMC. This commission, unlike others, aims to bring workers and farmers themselves into the agro-policy discussions. Jagmohan Singh has been voted as the national convenor, while Vijoo Krishnan, Navsharan Kaur, Roma Malik, Dinesh Abrol, P. Sainath, Thomas Franco and Nikhil Dey will be members.

In the immediate, the KMC’s ‘Agenda for 2024’ aims to study “rising cost of production, income enhancement, trade and investment (WTO and FTAs), rural credit and insurance, common pool resources, ecological challenge, food and nutrition, women farmers and rural non-farm enterprises”.

Speaking to the media, senior journalist and author, P. Sainath said, “M.S. Swaminathan’s life’s greatest contribution (the Swaminathan report on MSP) is ridiculed and thrown out, and meanwhile he was given a Bharat Ratna. We also become the world’s first country to use aerial drone warfare against farmers. We didn’t use this against the terrorist but against the farmers. Drones dropped tear gas canisters on peacefully protesting farmers. ”

On the government’s response to the farmers’ movement, Sainath said, “The package they (the Union government) offered was farm laws through the back door, it said we will expand MSP to five crops, but on paper it’s 23 crops already – if you go to five it’s a reduction.”

“Even if we look at the government’s own household consumption survey, whose veracity I doubt, even those figures show us that farmers’ incomes are lower than the rural average. That is why KMC its a platform with farmers and mazdoors in the forefront, I too am only member of the drafting committee. It is time to update and go beyond the Swaminathan Commission to address newer challenges like climate change, etc.,” he added.

Besides, the other issues the KMC proposes to look into are the Electricity Amendment Act, a national policy on water which is a people’s basic right, pension schemes, implementation of the Forest Rights Act 2006,  implementation of MGNREGA (India’s premier rural work programme), policies on fisheries, rain fed dry land agriculture, climate crisis, biodiversity loss and seed systems. The KMC is planning to hold special consultations on the subjects of land rights for women farmers including women agricultural workers, rights of rural labour which will include all the basic rights (not just wages but access to capabilities and markets), and the connections between agrarian crisis, environmental degradation and climate crisis.

Navsharan Kaur whose is leading the research on women within the KMC, told sections of the media present,  “Women are highly disadvantaged in agriculture. Despite being about 60% of the workforce, women barely own any land and in most places are not even counted as farmers. Even when we look the PM Kisan scheme, it hardly has any women beneficiaries. Women hardly have access to resources in agriculture. KMC will attempt to bridge this inequality. Apart from getting women’s needs to the forefront, we hope to influence policy through which women get more access to land in the villages and to create food and vegetables areas for better nutrition. Unused land within the public sector, should be redistributed to poor and landless women instead of corporates.”

The KMC has also set up other working groups to tackle the issues of “Analysis of Cost of Production and Income Sources; Analysis of Public & Private Investments; Farming Systems; Agricultural R & D; Agri-Digitalization; Rural Labour; Nutrition & Food Safety; Commons; Trade & Investment; Credit & Insurance.”

Dinesh Abrol, a scientist and economist,  also addressed the press conference and spoke to the media. He said, “The root cause of the agrarian crisis is the capture of public sector institutions by domestic and foreign corporations, for example Amazon, a retailing company, is now working with Ministry of Agriculture on agriculture extension. How does this happen? Corporatisation of agriculture is happening at a very rapid pace. My own research on the Green Revolution shows this, because instead of scientific management and use of agri-inputs, now companies are pushing more chemicals and inputs to boost their business. This is huge cost for the farmers and ecology of the country.”

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The post ‘Kisan Mazdoor Commission’: will examine rising challenges for Indian farmers appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The said plea has been moved by Uday Pratap Singh, a Chandigarh based lawyer, to urge judicial intervention and issuance of an urgent interim order to stay these “obstructive actions”. It is also essential to note that through the said petition, the plea has also raised questions against the suspension of mobile internet services and bulk SMS in several districts of Haryana including Ambala, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Jind, Hisar, Fatehabad, and Sirsa. As per a report of LiveLaw, the petition has highlighted that these suspension of services “further exacerbate the situation, depriving the citizens of their right to information and communication.”

The petitioner has also emphasised upon the constant denial of the authorities to hear and take action on the demands being raised by the farmers in regards to Minimum Support Price. As per a report in LiveLaw, the petitioner has stated “The arbitrary and illegal non-payment of Minimum Support Price sparked a deep sense of discontentment and betrayal among the hardworking farmers of the state. This unjust decision inflicted trauma upon the impoverished farming community. Despite the farmers’ pleas for the government to honour their rightful demand for at least the minimum support price (MSP) for their produce, the authorities have turned a deaf ear to their concerns.” 

Claiming the actions being undertaken by the State to be violative of the fundamental rights of citizens to move freely and assemble peaceful, guaranteed to citizens under Article 19 of the Constitution, the petitioner seeks for an independent inquiry into alleged arbitrary actions, including police intimidation and installation of obstacles.

Meanwhile, a meeting between the farm leaders and three members of the Union cabinet is supposedly taking place in Chandigarh. These ministers, namely Piyush Goyal (Food Minister), Arjun Munda (Union Agriculture Minister) and Nityanand Rai (Minister of State for Home Affairs), are holding a second round of these talks with the farmer leaders to address their concerns and demands. It is essential to note that at the first talk, the three ministers had told the farmers that their demands could not be accepted without consulting multiple Ministries.

Many detained, many face hurdles in reaching Delhi

As per a report of The Telegraph, around a hundred farmers from Karnataka, who were travelling in train to Delhi with the aim of taking part in the scheduled protest, were stopped at Bhopal by the state police. These claims were made by Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) South India Convenor Shanthakumar during a press conference. As per the report, Shanthakumar stated that he was also travelling with the group in the train and “the police stopped us at the Bhopal station, and some of our members were injured,” as per Telegraph. Shanthakumar also provided that he was somehow able to reach the national capital still.

At the same conference meeting, Shanthakumar also clarified that around 23 Mahapanchayat meetings had been held across the country before announcing the march, and the protest had been planned three months before and were not spontaneous.

As per a report of the Hindu, SKM- Non-Political leader Shiv Kumar Kakka, who is also a former RSS functionary, had been detained by the Madhya Pradesh police on February 11. Kakka was on his way to Chandigarh when the said arrest had taken place. As per his statement, Kakka was about to board a train to participate in the second round of talks with the union ministers. According to the Hindu report, Kakka said “I was about to board a train to Chandigarh to participate in Monday’s discussions. I was arrested and taken to the police station. I understand that hundreds of SKM-NP’s activists have also been sent to jail. I was released after three hours. But I will go to Chandigarh at any cost to participate in the protests. The Centre is vitiating the atmosphere by arresting farmers.” 

A report of Naiduniya reported that farmer leaders of the United Kisan Morcha and its associated organizations were being arrested in different districts of Madhya Pradesh. The report asserts that about 150 farmer leaders of the state have been detained at the police station, while many are being sent to jail. As provided by the report, Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) state president Anil Yadav was arrested from MP Nagar Bhopal police station, Mahendra Singh Tomar from Rajgarh, senior Kisan Sabha leader Ramnarayan Kureria from Jabalpur. District Vice President of Kisan Sangharsh Committee in Gwalior, Shatrughan Yadav and Shiv Kumar Kakka have been arrested in Bhopal. 

Rakesh Tikait, farmer leader and national spokesperson of BKU, took to ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) to express his anguish at the arrest of farmer leaders by the authorities of Madhya Pradesh and demand their release. In his post, Tikait stated “On the instructions of the Central Government, the state president of Madhya Pradesh Anil Yadav and Aradhana Bhargava have been arrested by the police and sent to jail. The government wants to make Bharat Bandh unsuccessful and suppress the voice of farmers. The government should release them with immediate effect.”

His post can be viewed here:

केंद्र सरकार के इशारे पर मध्य प्रदेश में @OfficialBKU के प्रदेश अध्यक्ष अनिल यादव और आराधना भार्गव को पुलिस ने गिरफ्तार कर जेल भेज दिया है सरकार भारत बंद को असफल व किसानों की आवाज को दबाना चाहती है सरकार इन्हें तत्काल प्रभाव से रिहा करें।@CMMadhyaPradesh@DGP_MP@PMOIndia@ANI

— Rakesh Tikait (@RakeshTikaitBKU) February 11, 2024

In addition to this, Indore saw leaders associated with farmer organizations being made to sit in the police station, including the Depalpur and Saver police stations, on the morning of February 12. It was asserted by them that the arrests of the farmer leaders were a part of the government’s attempt to stop the march to Delhi by the United Kisan Morcha on February 13 and to suppress the call for Gramin Bharat Bandh on February 16. It has been alleged by many that the state police also arrested houses of farm leaders late in the evenings of February 11. 

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also posted on ‘X’ regarding the detention of the famer leaders and highlighted the intimidation tactic of the BJP-led state government of Madhya Pradesh. In his post, Siddaramaiah condemned the said detentions and wrote “By arresting and intimidating them, the farmers’ struggle cannot be suppressed. Such repression might only lead more farmers to take to the streets, but the struggle of the sons and daughters of the soil will not cease. If the central government truly cares about peace and order, it should immediately meet the demands of the farmers and resolve the issue, rather than repressing and brutalizing them to silence. Whether it’s at the center or in the states, whenever BJP comes to power, history bears witness that their first act of aggression is against the farmers. The first time BJP came to power in Karnataka, farmers asking for fertilizer were ruthlessly shot down by the government led by B.S. Yediyurappa. Several farmers died due to the violence inflicted on protesting farmers in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh by Narendra Modi’s government at the center.”

His post can be viewed here:

The arrest of Hubballi farmers by the Madhya Pradesh government, as they were heading to a protest in Delhi tomorrow, is highly condemnable.

I demand that the Madhya Pradesh government immediately release all the farmers from our state who have been arrested and allow them to…

— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) February 12, 2024

Another protest by farmers announced, this time by SKM

The original SKM, which had super headed the previous one year long farmers protest against the three controversial farm laws, have also announced a rural and industrial strike on February 16, in collaboration with ten Central Trade Unions (CTUs). As per the report of the Hindu, in a joint statement here on Sunday, the SKM and the unions urged the Narendra Modi-led union government to learn lessons from the growing discontent among the farming community and workers of European countries and reconsider its pro-corporate policies, which are being intensified in India.

“SKM has strongly objected to the policy proposed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to permit corporate forces, including trans-national corporations, to take over post-harvest operations in agriculture, control and dominate food production, and the value-added consumer product market. Corporate agriculture is not a panacea for the agrarian crisis; rather, it will further deteriorate the plight of the farmers and workers in India,” the statement said.

In furtherance to this, the SKM has also asserted said that the rural bandh on February 16 would take place from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., with all agricultural activities, works under MGNREGA scheme, and other rural and farm works being boycotted. “The supply and purchase of vegetables, other crops will remain suspended; all the village shops, grain markets, vegetable markets, government and non-government offices, rural, industrial and service sector institutions and enterprises in private sector are requested to remain closed. The shops and establishments of towns remain closed for the strike hours,” the SKM said, as per the Hindu, adding that normal public and private transport would remain off the roads.

“Ensure passage to emergency services of ambulance, death, marriage, medical shops, newspaper supply, board exam candidates, and passengers to the airport,” the SKM said in the statement.

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The post Farmer leaders detained in Madhya Pradesh, made to sit at police stations, saw police raids at night- attempts to stop farmers from joining protest intensify appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Those who accuse peasants and other protestors as andolana jeevi, or even as anti-nationals, etc. should know that: there is a reason for the struggles of the workers and peasants who constitute the real nation. The reason is the anti-national attacks on their life and livelihood. The ruling class and its political representatives appear to be oblivious of the fact that: farm income, whether in the rubber cultivation or the cultivation of cereals or vegetables, is absolutely insufficient to meet the cost of production and household expenses, which is why more than 2000 farmers give up cultivation every day, and possibly a farmer commits suicide every half an hour or so (at least between 1995 and 2015).

Peasants, like workers, are not just a suffering mass. Like workers, they are a fighting mass. They make many immediate demands. For peasants to increase their success in getting these met, there must be a worker peasant alliance (WPA). The process of its formation has begun.

CAPITALISM AS THE BASIS FOR WORKER PEASANT ALLIANCE

And the basis for WPA must consciously be capitalism. Let me explain. India is dominantly a capitalist country in the sense of what Marx calls formal subsumption of labour, which is to say that capitalism exists where the following conditions exist: surplus is pumped out mainly via economic, and not extra-economic, coercion, from nominally free labour; the means of production and consumption are bought in the market (both by capital and labour) thus confront the worker as capital; no more labor time is used in production than is socially necessary, so there is competition to reduce the cost of production of commodities for sale; and an economic relation of supremacy and subordination exists at the point of production, as the worker is supervised by the capitalist (or their manager) (I discuss this in details in my book, Critical reflections on economy and politics in India). Indian capitalism is dominantly based on a regime of low wages and long hours, which is combined with elements of advanced capitalism (especially in the monopoly sector) and with remnants of pre-capitalist relations in specific localities. Peasants are a big part of Indian capitalism as are workers.

The main contradiction in Indian society is not between landlordism and the masses but between capitalism, including its many factions on the one hand and the masses – rural and urban proletarians/semi-proletarians and working peasantry, the masses who are also oppressed/exploited by remnants of semi-feudal relations in specific localities which capital will not eliminate because of its fear of the working class. Further, India’s capitalism has been working as a junior partner of imperialism which, through its financial and other institutions, adversely impacts both workers and peasants.

It is capitalism that is adversely affecting both workers and peasants. Capitalists engage in M-C-M′: investing money to buy commodities and hire labour to produce commodities for sale for money than invested, and their profit ultimately comes from them paying less than what workers produce in net terms. Capitalists’ involvement in this circuit – including their strategies of procuring money for investment and for buying, at a cheaper rate, means of production (including agro-raw materials, land, water, etc.) and labour power—affects both workers and peasants. In contrast, most peasants engage in M-C-M^– :  this means that: they invest money to produce farm products for sale for more money but end up making less money than invested (i.e. M^–). As Lenin has said: ‘Capital, created by the labour of the worker, crushes the worker, ruining small proprietors and creating an army of unemployed’.

Capitalism is impacting workers and peasants in many ways. These include: low wage and un- and under-employment in cities which hurt urban workers, a situation that stops many peasants from switching to urban labour; state-enforced acquisition of peasants’ land in corporates’ interests without their explicit consent; adverse terms of trade against peasant farming favoring urban capital; inflation caused by corporate price gouging; neoliberal austerity to increase corporate profit and discipline workers; tightening grip of corporates over agriculture via marketing, finance, contract farming, etc.; retrenchment of state employees; rural capitalism’s increasing control over peasants and rural labour by the expansion of their activities into non-farm spheres; unfree labour relations including bonded labour; collaboration between urban capital and a new class of rural rentiers who own dormitories for workers in new industrial towns; increasing control over Indian economy by foreign companies and institutions; and so on.

There are also political attacks on workers and peasants from the institutions of the capitalist state. There are increasing attacks on democratic rights and rights of minorities, and this impacts workers and peasants. Peasants and workers are also treated undemocratically by state officials who behave as kings/queens or landlords. There are increasing attacks on democratic rights and rights of minorities, and this impacts workers and peasants. On-going attacks on federalism are also attacks on workers and peasants because their organizations are strong in certain states where they influence, or run, the governments.

WHAT MUST WORKER-PEASANT ALLIANCE DEMAND?

If it is capitalism that is the dominant reason for workers’ and peasant’s suffering, then it follows that: the fight for concessions from capitalism (immediate demands including for land) must consciously be a part of the fight against the logic of capitalism as such, i.e. the fight for socialism on the basis of non-immediate demands or transitional demands, the demands that bridge the gap between current level of consciousness/action and socialist consciousness/action, the demands that will help workers and peasant to form their government.

These transitional or radical demands of WPA must include: nationalization of big corporations, plantations and other major enterprises, especially those in heavy industry, transportation and communication, food and medicine, construction and energy; effective, not nominal, control over credit; expansion of public sector and of peasants- and workers-run cooperative sector, including in agri-production, fishery and agro-processing; saying no to austerity imposed in part by imperialism; government take-over of enterprises which were hitherto in the public sector; cancellation of debts owed to foreign institutions; right to work with inflation-adjusted wages; remunerative price to farmers to be multiple times the price currently received; farmers and workers’ access to high-quality food, shelter, healthcare, education, energy, transportation, etc. in adequate quantities; price control by committees of workers and peasants; democratization of the state, including the active participation of workers and peasants in administration; progressive taxation; immediate cessation of secretive corporate funding for parties; immediate stop to extravagant beautification and monument-building policies and excessive military spending that do not benefit workers and peasants; significant climate mitigation strategies without any compromise with polluting corporates; and so on. Needless to say, while making these demands, workers and peasants must remain independent of all bourgeois parties.

The peasantry’s class position is a barrier to the WPA’s fight for socialism, however. While peasants are dominantly exploited by capitalism, peasants qua peasants, unlike workers, generally do not have socialist instinct because of their proprietorship.

Therefore their socialist education would be vital. Indeed: it is the task of socialist political economy, says Lenin (in 1908), ‘to demonstrate to the small producer the impossibility of [their] holding [their] own under capitalism, the hopelessness of peasant farming under capitalism, and the necessity for the peasant to adopt the standpoint of the proletarian’.

It is true that ‘the fight for socialism [as] a fight against the rule of capital… is being carried on first and foremost by the wage-workers’ (Lenin in 1905). But there are no absolutely insurmountable barrier to millions of working peasants, if not all, being their socialist ally: ‘As for the small farmers, some of them own capital themselves, and often themselves exploit workers. Hence not all small peasants join the ranks of fighters for socialism’ (Lenin, 1905). But some can and do join the fight for socialism: ‘only those do so who resolutely and consciously side with the workers against capital, with public property against private property (ibid; italics). As peasants experience proletarianization, objective conditions will be created for their adoption of the proletarian socialist attitude.

That socialist tendency will be stronger if peasants are educated about the fact that socialism is not a threat to their control over land. Socialists do not need to expropriate small peasantry. Whether they remain individual peasants or become members of peasant coops, they will receive not only land and credit but also machines and fertilizers, etc. at an affordable price. And, because of the attacks on capitalist property, and especially, large-scale capitalist enterprises by the worker peasant government, wages will rise drastically (say by 3 times) and state welfare will expand massively, and workplace alienation will be reduced enormously, and when this happens, many middle peasants and those who hire some labour may voluntarily switch to (peasants-operated) cooperative production or to socialist labour.

In a socialist society, Lenin writes in a 1917 article titled ‘Alliance Between the Workers and Exploited Peasants’: ‘there is no radical divergence of interests between the wage-workers and the working and exploited peasants. Socialism is fully able to meet the interests of both. Only socialism can meet their interests. Hence the possibility and necessity for an “honest coalition” between the proletarians and the working and exploited peasantry’.

Lenin’s words about the need for WPA to be socialist and explicitly anti-capitalist have contemporary relevance. Just as the Russian peasants fought for freedom from illiberalism and for land, so must peasants in India and other countries of belated capitalist development, as a part of their uninterrupted fight for socialism. After all, as Lenin said in 1921 in his ‘Fourth Anniversary of the October Revolution’: ‘reforms are a by-product of the revolutionary class struggle’ i.e. ‘a ‘by-product’ of our main and genuinely proletarian-revolutionary, socialist activities’. It is the fire of the socialist imagination that will increase three aspects of the peasant and workers movement and of WPA: extensity (geographical spread); intensity (the extent to which their movement forces governments to concede to their demands or loses legitimacy) and velocity (speed of action).

CONCLUSION

If the main class process that is impacting peasants is capitalism, then it is wrong to say that the slogan of a socialist nature vis-a-vis agriculture, if raised now, will hinder the task of winning over the peasantry. The idea that workers and peasants will achieve some kind of egalitarian democratic capitalism first and will then engage in a socialist struggle at some future date, is a restrictive vision that can wrongly determine the allies. The idea that the conditions for socialist movement are not ripe now is based on the idea that capitalist relations, better managed by a popular-democratic government, can further the development of productive forces: such a view forgets that capital – as a social relation — has become a barrier to itself. To say that the completion of the democratic task of the revolution is the most urgent task because it will help clear all the pre-capitalist relations and institutions is to overestimate pre-capitalism’s impact on peasants and underestimating capitalism’s impacts, including its promotion of illiberalism.

Time is running out. Climate breakdown. Fascistic forces knocking on the door. Militarism. Workers and peasants experiencing avoidable death and illness. Imperialism after workers’ and peasants’ blood and sweat. So, socialism must not be talked about in future tense. In the Indian context, problems such as divisive politics of hate, massive immiserization, collapse of government-provided education and healthcare, unemployment and low wages, agrarian distress, climate change, and so on can only be fought by a politics of worker-peasant alliance.

A crisis-ridden capitalism-in-decline leaves no space for a more democratic, more egalitarian, less corporates-dominated, and more pro-peasants or pro-worker capitalism. The choice for workers and peasants today is socialist democracy or suffocating suffering.

Raju J Das is a professor at York University, Toronto. His recent books include Critical reflections on economy and politics in India, and Marx’s Capital, Capitalism and Limits to the State: Theoretical Considerations. For more details, visit: https://rajudas.info.yorku.ca/

A version of this text was presented on September 7, 2023 at the National Seminar on the Crisis of the Natural Rubber Sector in India, organized by Public Policy Research Institute, Thiruvananthapuram.

Courtesy: https://countercurrents.org

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It is not just in India that food prices are rising sharply. This is a global phenomenon characterising not just the Third World but even the advanced capitalist countries. The usual explanation attributes it to the scarcity caused by the Ukraine war, but while the Ukraine war can, in principle, be such a cause of inflation by generating scarcity, the current rise in food prices is, if at all, more in anticipation of such a scarcity than a result of any actual scarcity.

There is plenty of evidence from all over the world which shows that even before any actual scarcity has occurred, profit-margins have increased in the retail foods sector, which indicates a jacking up of prices by monopolists in anticipation of scarcity. The same is true in India, because of which many are talking about “inflationary expectations” being at play, which drive up actual prices because of a rise in expected prices.

But inflationary expectations can play a role only when, despite there being no actual shortage, the actual supply situation is not characterised by great abundance. After all, when there are huge foodgrain stocks lying around, prices are not jacked up by suppliers in anticipation of inflation: if such stocks are held by the government, suppliers know that they would be released to consumers at prices that would negate any jacking up.

Even if the stocks are held by private sellers, their priority would be to bring down the level of stocks rather than jack up prices. What is more, even if some suppliers jacked up prices, others would see in it an opportunity to take away customers from these sellers and reduce their levels of stocks. “Inflationary expectations”, in other words, play a role only when the underlying situation is one where supplies are not too comfortable.

This has been the case with the world foodgrains market for quite some time. The annual per capita world cereal production, for instance, (taking a triennium average divided by mid-triennium population) was 355 kg for the triennium 1979-80 to 1981-82 (or 1980-82 for short); it fell to 343 kg by 2000-02, and even over the period 2016-18 it was only 344 kg.

Moreover, a rising proportion of cereal output 2002 onward has been diverted to ethanol production, which means that the per capita availability of cereals for consumption purposes for the world’s population must have shrunk.

If this shrinking availability did not give rise to any persistent and significant inflationary pressures till now, the reason lies in the fact that under the neoliberal regime there has been a drastic squeeze on the purchasing power of the working people, especially in the Third World. There has been, in short, a precarious balance maintained between shrinking availability and shrinking demand because of income compression imposed on the working people. Because of this even while poverty and undernutrition have increased greatly in the neoliberal era (though this fact is usually sought to be concealed by the numerous “poverty studies” under the aegis of the Bretton Woods institutions), this deprivation has generally not taken the form of an inflationary squeeze. There have been occasional upsurges in food prices, but these have been “controlled” by compressing the incomes of the working people, which again restores the precarious balance between demand and supply in a non-inflationary manner.

Exactly a similar situation has prevailed in India. In 1991, the per capita availability of foodgrains was 510.1 gm per day. This had slightly gone down to 501.8 gm per day in 2019-20. In the next two years, government distribution of foodgrains during the pandemic, which was made possible through a decumulation of government foodgrain stocks, raised the figure to 511.7 gm and 514.6 gm, respectively, but clearly over the entire neo-liberal period, per capita availability of foodgrains, according to official data, scarcely increased. There was, in other words, a precarious balance between demand and supply which was maintained without any significant and steady increase in prices because the purchasing power in the hands of the working people was kept adequately squeezed through the modus operandi of a neoliberal regime.

This precarious balance can be upset at any time, giving rise immediately to a rise in foodgrain prices and hence to inflationary expectations that compound the problem, until under capitalist conditions a squeeze on purchasing power is further tightened through the so-called anti-inflationary policy adopted by the government.

The Ukraine war and the global rise in foodgrain prices provides the context for the generation of inflationary expectations in India as well. This is further reinforced by the fact that the foodgrain stocks with the government, while higher than what is required to manage the public distribution system, is lower than what it has been for some time.

August 22, for instance, the total foodgrain stocks with the Food Corporation of India were 52.335 million tonnes, consisting of 24.296 million tonnes of rice and 28.039 million tonnes of wheat. These stocks were higher than the operational stocks required for the public distribution system but were lower than at any time during the preceding six years, which would have given a signal to speculators to hoard grains and push up the open-market price.

This running down of stocks was itself a result of an extraordinarily unwise policy of the Narendra Modi government, which thought it could bring down foodgrain inflation in the open market by disgorging the stocks it held. The speculators just bought up what the government disgorged, so that inflation continued as before, while government stocks were gratuitously run down, thereby further strengthening inflationary expectations and hence the inflationary process. And, of course, when foodgrain prices rise, fuelled by inflationary expectations, this tends to have the general impact of raising prices of other food items as well.

There are two alternative ways of combating the food inflation that is occurring. One is through monetary policy, raising interest rates and tightening credit in general. In the old days, on such occasions, only the credit given to the foodgrain sector was tightened, under a policy called “selective credit control”, But in the neo-liberal era this has fallen into disuse, because of which interest rate policy is used, which necessarily hurts the viability of small enterprises and causes significant unemployment. This way of controlling food price inflation, in short, entails the creation of unemployment; and this, alas, is the generally favoured panacea for inflation under capitalism.

The other way of controlling inflation is to widen the reach of the public distribution system so that government stocks are not disgorged in the open market, but consumers are taken off the open market and government stocks are distributed among them, so that speculators cannot have access to these stocks.

Of course, enlarged sales through the public distribution system will have to be followed by enlarged procurement by the government through the Food Corporation of India, if the system of food distribution is to survive; and any way, the government is planning to procure 52.1 million tonnes of rice in this year’s kharif season. This is an absolutely essential measure for beating the current food inflation.

The extraordinary silliness of the measures that were sought to be put in place through the three infamous farm laws now becomes obvious. If those measures had not been withdrawn because of the agitation of the farmers, then procurement would have been privatised and the government would have had no means of combating inflation which would have continued unabated under the aegis of the private sector.

Fortunately, the farmers saved the country, and public procurement of foodgrains continues to prevail; and the government still has a weapon in its hand to combat inflation without generating mass unemployment.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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The protests stem from the on-going crisis with Punjab. More than 25 districts of Punjab and Haryana were severely affected by the heavy rains and floods this season which has caused a huge crop loss to farmers dependent on agriculture but the administration has not announced any compensation for them as of now. 

Farmer leaders have been demanding compensation not just for Punjab but for the entire north India region affected by these floods, urging the government to set up a package of Rs. 50000 crore for relief and compensation. 

In terms of compensation, they are demanding Rs. 50000 per acre for crop loss, Rs. 5 lakh for housing damages and repair work as well as relief of Rs. 10 lakh to the families of those who lost their lives in the floods.

After negotiations with the administration failed and memorandums were submitted to the authorities, 16 Kisan Unions collectively gave a joint call on July 22 to march towards Chandigarh a month later on August 22, if they saw no change of positions from the government. 

Both Punjab and Haryana governments began a pre-emptive strike against this call and arrested more than 20 kisan leaders and hundreds of active farmers from their homes in a bid to eliminate the leadership of this protest and curtail the backlash from it. 

Even so, the farmers began the march to Chandigarh to surround the Chief Minister’s offices and make their demands heard. In an attempt to stop them from reaching their destination, the administration lathi-charged the farmers heading towards Chandigarh on 21st August and 22nd August which took the life of Pritam Singh and amputated the leg of another one. Even after all these incidents, the arrests have only intensified, with youth kisan leader Baldeep Singh being arrested on August 22, even after strong demonstrations from farmers after the repression in Longowal.

The Punjab government’s attempt at curtailing the democratic rights of these farmers intensified in other ways too, with several social media accounts of both the leading farmers and the grassroot journalists being blocked, a direct attack against the democratic rights to organise and protest, along with curtailment of media professional’s ability to report the truth to the larger people of the country. 

Particularly, the Facebook page of Gaon Savera, which covers rural Haryana and Punjab and run by journalist Mandeep Punia and his team, was blocked. This is the third such local and grassroot platform, after Lokvani and National Savera which has been curtailed in such an undemocratic manner. 

In other places, the Haryana government deployed police vans which would try to overtake buses and tractors carrying protesting farmers and obstruct their paths on highways by placing police vehicles in front of them. Police have continued their attempts to block protests by increasing personnel in key areas of Mohali, the entry point to Chandigarh in the last 24 hours.

These attacks and actions of the administration have been condemned widely with demands made that the Punjab Government, Haryana Government & Chandigarh administration to stop these repressive measures with immediate effect. This attack on farmers unions has been condemned by human rights and civil liberties organisations including Campaign against Repression.

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The post Attacks on farmers by Punjab & Haryana govts, censorship of Gaon Savvera part of a pattern appeared first on SabrangIndia.

“Despite the mandate of the High Court, it appears that neither the acquiring authority, nor the State Government is being sensitised. If insensitivity is to be blinked at by this court, we are afraid that the rule of law will not prevail and there would not only be a travesty of justice, but would result in miscarriage of justice,” the court observed.

This significant legal development came from the High Court that was hearing a cluster of petitions lodged by farmers whose lands had been acquired by the State Government. 

Aggrieved farmers had contended that despite a 2019 order issued by the esteemed Lok Adalat, the government had failed to provide them with the rightful compensation. According to the Government Resolution (GR), the compensation was to be disbursed within 180 days of the settlement award, which had not been honoured this ruling, the High Court expressed profound dismay at the acquiring authorities and revenue officials for callously disregarding the sanctity of the Lok Adalat awards and the severe financial adversities faced by the petitioner farmers. The court also made poignant remarks, emphasising that these cases were glaring illustrations of the authorities showing scant regard for the Lok Adalat awards, issued as far back as December 17, 2019.The division bench documented how, when a farmer’s fundamental right to cultivate his land, an integral part of the right to livelihood, is taken away, it becomes incumbent upon the authorities to duly compensate the affected individual.

Right to property is not only a Constitutional or a statutory right, but also a human right and human rights are considered to be in the realm of individual rights which are gaining an even greater multifaceted dimension and, therefore, in case the person aggrieved is deprived of the land without making the payment of compensation as determined by the Collector/Court, it would tantamount to forcing the said uprooted persons to become vagabonds or to indulge in anti-social activities as such sentiments would be born in them on account of such ill treatment,” 

Moreover, the learned bench astutely observed that the entitlement to compensation for the farmers is a sacrosanct legal right, and for those possessing vested legal rights, the pursuit of justice becomes an inherent facet. Farmers with justifiable claims ought not to implore for justice but rather assert their right to demand it unequivocally. In the event of failure to disburse such payments within the stipulated timeframe, there shall legally arise an interest component, which the responsible officers must bear as a penalty for the delay.

Furthermore, the division bench issued a clear directive to both the government and acquiring authorities, compelling them to ensure timely disbursal of awarded amounts to farmers who have entered into Lok Adalat settlements from the year 2017 onwards, and who have no prior pending cases. The prescribed timeframe for such settlement mandates completion within 90 days from the date of this pivotal judgment.

Based on the findings from the NSSO 59th round ‘Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers’, the economic situation of Indian farmers remains a matter of grave concern. The survey reveals that an average Indian farmer’s monthly earnings stand at Rs 6,426, while their expenditure amounts to Rs 6,223. This indicates a meagre surplus, leaving little room for financial stability or savings.

Disturbingly, a striking level of income inequality plagues the agricultural sector. Merely 15 percent of farmers manage to secure a whopping 91 percent of the total agricultural income. 

This stark contrast between the few privileged and the majority facing financial hardships highlights the overwhelming disparity present within the farming community. An even more distressing aspect is the precarious profitability of farming activities. Specifically, farmers earn a mere Rs 7,639 from a hectare of wheat cultivation, whereas the production cost to achieve this yield amounts to a staggering Rs 32,644. Such a substantial gap between income and expenses poses a severe threat to the livelihoods of countless farmers who struggle to make ends meet. In essence, these findings shed light on the grim economic realities faced by Indian farmers, characterised by slim margins, inequality in income distribution, and the struggle to generate profitable returns from their hard work and investments in agricultural activities. Urgent attention and support are required to uplift the agricultural community and ensure a sustainable and equitable future for these essential contributors to the nation’s prosperity. 

Since 2017, over 800 farmers impacted by the upcoming Jewar airport in Gautam Buddha Nagar have been protesting against land loss, livelihood issues, and insufficient compensation. Their main grievance stems from a government notification that reclassifies the proposed site from rural to urban, halving the compensation amount legally entitled to them under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act, 2013. The Act stipulates two times the market rate for urban land and four times the market rate for rural land. 

On March 16, 2018, Farmers Protested against Low Compensation for NTPC Plant in MP and Demanded Jobs. 

Led by the All-India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), farmers in Greater Noida staged a protest at the Greater Noida Development Authority headquarters, protesting the government’s failure to fulfil a promise made 13 years ago. The promise was to compensate them for the lands that were taken away by the government. Thousands of farmers participated in the sprawling rally around the headquarters. On April 25, 2018 Over 5,000 farmers in Gujarat, India, had expressed their willingness to die rather than part with their land, as disputes over land acquisition intensify in the country. In Bhavnagar district, they demanded the return of 2,000 hectares of land acquired by a power utility over two decades ago, which remains unused. They have communicated this plea to state officials and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On May 18, 2023, hundreds of activists and farmers belonging to the farmers’ organisation, Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMC), took a standby squatting on a railway track and obstructing rail traffic at Devidaspura village. Their protest was driven by the claim of receiving inadequate compensation for the land acquired for the Bharat Mala project.

Some of the legal developments through case laws illuminated these endeavours and deepen jurisprudence:  

In the case of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. V. Darius Shapur Chennai (2005) 7 SCC 627, the court held that the State could acquire private property under its power of eminent domain, but it must be for a public purpose, and the affected person must receive reasonable compensation as mandated under Article 300-A of the Constitution.

In Jilubhai Nanbhai Khachar v. State of Gujarat MANU/SC/0033/1995, the court clarified that Article 300-A limits the State’s power to deprive a person of their property, ensuring no deprivation without proper legal authority.

In the ruling, Delhi Airtech Services Pvt. Ltd. V. State of U.P (2011) 9 SCC 354, the constitutional courts recognised the right to property as a fundamental human right, emphasizing that the State cannot claim adverse possession over citizens’ properties in its role as a welfare state.

In B.K. Ravichandra & Ors. V. Union of India & Ors SCC OnLine SC 950, the court reaffirmed that compensation must be paid, and the State or authorities cannot ignore this obligation. 

In the case of National Highways Authority of India vs. Modan Singh FAO-756-2022 (O&M), the Land Acquisition Act 2013 was made applicable. (Here, compensation deposited before December 31, 2014, was not paid to the majority of farmers: Punjab & Haryana HC. 

In the case of GNIDA vs. Devendra SLP (C) No. 16366 of 2011, the government’s land acquisition order was invalidated due to its arbitrary exercise of power.

Constitutional Principles 

A welfare state must not, under the pretext of industrial development, forcibly displace and violate the fundamental, constitutional, and human rights of its citizens. A welfare state, governed by the rule of law, cannot assume a status beyond what is granted by the Constitution. Moreover, the authorities responsible for such actions are not only obligated to provide adequate compensation but also have a legal duty to rehabilitate the affected individuals.

Failure to fulfil these obligations would amount to compelling the uprooted individuals to become wanderers or engage in activities against their own nation, as such feelings may arise due to their mistreatment without any lawful procedure. The court must recognize that a welfare state or its agencies enriching themselves at the expense of impoverished farmers is impermissible, especially when endorsed by the state itself.

To further read the judgement 

(The author is an intern with the Citizens for Justice and Peace, ww.cjp.org.in)

References

https://www.deshabhimani.com/english/news/national/no-compensation-for-lands-taken-away-farmers-break-into-protest-in-greater-noida/8275

https://m.timesofindia.com/india/fair-compensation-for-land-acquired-by-govt-is-farmers-human-right-sc/articleshow/50050793.cms

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/punjab-and-haryana-high-court-grants-relief-to-farmers-whose-land-was-acquired-for-highway-496491

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