Above photo: Farmers rally in Maharashtra in 2020-2021 farmers struggle. Newsclick.
Millions are expected to join the nationwide mobilization launched by a combination of central trade unions and an united front of farmers called the Samyukta Kisan Morcha.
India’s major farmers and workers unions are coming together to launch a nationwide mobilization on Tuesday, November 26, to demand the government address the distress faced by the majority of the country’s population of farmers and workers.
A call for nationwide protests was given by the united farmers front, Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) and a joint platform of the Central Trade Unions earlier this month. Left-affiliated farmer’s organizations All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), All India Agricultural Workers Union (ALAWU), and Center for Indian Trade Unions (CITU), one of India’s largest trade union federations, are part of the call to mobilize.
The agitation is based on a comprehensive charter of demands, which includes withdrawal of all anti-worker legislation enacted by the current ultra right-wing government led by prime minister Narendra Modi, and the enactment of legally guaranteed procurement at a minimum price for all farm products.
Other major demands include a guaranteed job of minimum 200 days for all, a minimum wage of 26,000 rupees (around USD 307), comprehensive loan waiver for farmers, agricultural and other workers.
The SKM, formed by farmers organizations during the 2020-21 struggle against three farm bills introduced by the Modi-led government, continues to raise the issue of the government’s failure to fulfill its promises of enacting a law for minimum support prices (MSP) for all farm produce. The Modi government had promised in a written agreement with the SKM on December 9, 2021 to enact such a law as a condition to end the farmer’s agitation, SKM claims.
According to a press release on November 15, SKM has already launched a door to door campaign in districts across the country starting November 7. The campaign will continue until November 25 with a target to cover 100 villages in each district with a total target of at least 50,000 villages across the country. It aims to mobilize large gatherings at all district headquarters across the country on November 26.
Growing distress among farmers and the working population in India
SKM issued a leaflet highlighting the plight of farmers and agricultural workers across India for the campaign. It claims at a time when the “cost of cultivation and inflation is rising at a higher than 12-15% every year, the government is increasing MSP by only 2 to 7%,” leaving working people and farmers in the country in distress.
It raises the issue of the government’s reluctance to fix MSP for farm produce according to the agreed formula of C2+50%. The leaflet also points out that the government’s failure to procure enough crops is forcing a large number of farmers to sell their products at lower prices, incurring losses and many leaving farming altogether.
SKM claims there is a direct link between the distress in farming, rising unemployment, and the greater exploitation of the working classes across the industrial and urban areas. The government is introducing corporatization in farming by forcing farmers to digitize their land and crops through methods such as the Digital Agricultural Mission, which was announced during the last union budget, formation of a union cooperative ministry in violation of India’s federal character, and the imposition of centralized taxations such as GST at a time when it is letting them exploit the workers by abolishing the hard won rights of unionization and collective bargaining.
The SKM claims that new labor codes imposed by the Modi government “annuls any guarantee on statutory minimum wages, job security, social security, eight hour working day and right to unionize and collective bargaining.”
Though passed in 2020, the four new laws dealing with labor in India have not been implemented yet due to strong protests by all major trade unions. The Modi government reiterates its intention to implement them soon.
The SKM accuses the government of reducing crucial social security for the working class, and also reducing subsidies on food, education, health and education. The inability of the working class to buy food at the market prices, for example, is pushing more and more people towards food insecurity. It quotes data from UN agencies, which claim that nearly 36% of children aged below 5 years in India are underweight, and 38% are facing stunted growth. It notes that nearly 57% women and 67% children in India are anemic due to lack of adequate nutritious food.
Privatization of education and health care has further deprived the majority of people in India any possibility of an improved living conditions apart from facilitating corporate exploitation of popular desperation.
The Modi government is siphoning off public money collected through regressive taxes “to corporations in the form of incentives under various heads, Capex, production linked employment and so on,” while promoting contractualization and pushing “job-seeking youth to virtual slavery,” SKM claims.
“The Modi government has waived” millions of dollars of debt for corporate houses, “but refused to free farmers and agricultural workers from indebtedness through a comprehensive loan waiver and credit policy,” according to the SKM.