There is an urgent appeal to G20 among farmers and citizens to stand with farmers as India had seen a food shortage in the past.
The urgent appeal to G20 could be the last ray of hope to help farmers who could face a catastrophe if their pleas are ignored as is happening presently. During the Bengal famine, the corrupt policies of Churchill got three million Indians killed. Everything boils down to policy which is a chain reaction to inflict poverty, starvation, unemployment, plagues, and malnutrition. The present farm laws are not farmer-friendly, but corporate-friendly spurring on situations where farmers would not even have the proper legal protection of their lands, their estates could be taken over by corporates if they cannot meet the demands of the corporates, leading them to barrenness, joblessness, or become servants of cruel taskmasters.
Recently, India faced severe food shortages continuing to be the largest population in the world with an estimated 189 million people in India already undernourished before the pandemic started. Save the Children dreads that due to the shock waves of the COVID pandemic, these shortages might increase further. The new farm laws will weaken small farmers and lead to a severe starvation crisis in the land because it is eventually the smaller farmers that have the greatest potential to reach rural heartlands and feed the entire nation.
Despite the farmers’ protest being the largest protest in world history, the Indian government refuses to budge an inch to change an iota of the three black farm laws.
The concerns of these laws are as follow:
The Bills will eliminate the APMC system (Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee): Their products would fall directly into the hands of big corporates. Under this bill, the trade outside the APMC Mandis is unregulated.
There is no guarantee of MSP (Minimum Support Prices): This is because the bill is controlled by cooperates and will always fluctuate.
There is no accountability under this law: Under this law, it is not mandatory for a company to make a written contract with the farmer for any contract farming. So, even if the company violates the terms of the contract, the farmer cannot prove it. Farmers will be forced to bribe their way out of things. If no money, they fear their lands will be taken. Storage will destroy crops so forced to sell quickly at higher rates.
These laws allow long storage of food: The food would eventually spoil, thus farmers would have to sell them at throwaway prices.
The rooting fear is the farmers will become slaves to the corporates: Many poorer farmers will be forced to sell lands and give up farming if they cannot keep up with the demands of the corporates, for the laws favor the corporates over the farmers. It has been proven that while government agencies will take better care of the people, most corporates fleece the common citizen to maintain their opulent lifestyles.
Cooperates who seek to make the maximum profit will make food prices go up for everyone: Since the law stands at an advantage with corporates, food costs would ultimately affect everyone. It is not only the cost of food but all goods and commodities will go up as everything is invariably interconnected in trade.
Notwithstanding these demands of revoking the farm laws, the government refuses to withdraw them despite massive pan Indian farmers’ protests. Belying the magnitude of the protests, the Government of India says that only a few farmers at the border of India are opposing the laws, and blaming the opposition for sparking the protests. However, the farmers are not fools, there are many educated farmers and agriculturists who have studied the laws for themselves and have firmly rejected them knowing it would not benefit them. In fact, if the farmers knew the laws would benefit them, they would tell the opposition parties to go and take a walk.
India had earlier seen a terrible crisis of food shortage in the past when the MSP (Minimum Support Price) was commenced for selective crops to help the farmers, but later, the farmers were exploited to run the Food system. Today, the farmers will face the same crisis if India does not speak and raise their voices for their farmers today. As it is known, food is the moral right of all who are born into this world and the farm laws will not only affect farmers but every Indian.
Thus there is an urgent request among citizens of India to the world leaders to stand in solidarity and help the Indian farmers on the world stage.
Food protection and rights of farmers cannot be built on the dead bodies of our farmers when it is too late. Thus, it is imperative to repeal the laws while there is still time, as these laws have made no provisions to favor the farmers nor advance their fields and folds.
The appeal from Kisan Ekta Morcha is that “All G20 nations must stand with the farmers in the development of their livelihoods & prosperity in their lives It’s time to get together & bring a decisive outcome”.
The farmers are not only fighting for themselves but are on the battlegrounds for the whole nation because the poor improvised farm laws will weaken not only farmers but hit India jettisoning a food crisis, something which the Government is denying.
Over eleven long, tiring, freezing, blazing months of farmers’ protests leading to the death of many farmers, nothing has changed.
While G20 made a commitment to end hunger and malnutrition and to cultivate a sustainable and resilient food system by improving access to finance, reducing food loss and waste along the food value chain, and enhancing the rural-urban interface, the three farms laws in India oppose this stance.
G20’s promise is to focus on the small and marginalized farmers rather than just the ‘fat cats’; however, the three farm laws set out by the Indian government aims to feed the “fat cats” and ignore small farmers. Most of Governments India’s welfare schemes are aimed at poverty alleviation and uplifting those at the bottom of the pyramid. But there’s no policy for those in the “middle” and in danger of slipping to the bottom.
Legalizing the MSP in India can lead to biodiversity in agriculture and save the small and marginal farmers at the same time. However, the farm laws will finish the small farmers leading to poverty and chronic hunger. GOI should support agricultural development through targeted policies such as legalizing MSP, infrastructure investment, development systems, and providing incentives for sustainable use of soil and water but not by handing over the farmlands to corporate.
As someone said, “GOI will never understand what it takes to build a nation…The government that had no history of public welfare or harmony is, unfortunately, ruling the Country. They know how to sell. Brokers they are.
If India needs to eradicate hunger from the Nation we need to stand with small and marginalized farmers. They are the ones who feed the nation.
The hostility to the farmers is evident by the body language of Prime Minister Narendra Modi where he has not met one single small farmer on a one-to-one or even hugged them. The farm laws are a death knell for 58% of the Indian population!!
Rita
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