The agitation against the farmers bill is one of the biggest agitations facing India today. What sets this struggle apart is the fact that organizations that are part of the ruling leadership are also part of the struggle.The best thing to do for farmers is to ensure that they have the legal right to receive the minimum price, whether in the government or private markets of the country. It is a fact that the farmers bill has not given due consideration to the reasonable demands of the farmers that minimum prices should be available for agricultural produce. It remains a fact that the newly passed bill does not give any consideration to the long standing demand of the farmers to declare a minimum support price for the remaining crops in addition to the existing ones. Figures released by government agencies show that the government is not getting much benefit from the private sector. When the government announced a minimum price of Rs 1,815 per quintal of paddy in 2019, farmers received only Rs 1,350 from the private market. With the implementation of the Farmers Bill 2020, India is set to create two types of markets in the country. One of them will be government controlled markets. There, taxes are levied and regulated by government officials. The other would be markets with no government controls under private agencies.
The following are the long standing demands of the farmers to the successive governments of India.
1. Calculate the cost of production and give out the minimum support price for all crops.
2. Write off agricultural debts
3. Provide subsidies directly to farmers
4. Timely implementation of decisions to hand over land to farmers after resolving disputes regarding agricultural land.
5. Increase the number of government procurement centres and mandis (Primary agricultural markets).
What is really happening is the abolition of the mandi system through the newly introduced agriculture bill.
The fact is that the reasonable needs of the farmers mentioned above have not been given due consideration in the farmers bill. It can be said that this has forced the farmers to raise their concerns and take up the struggle. The most desirable thing for a country where most of the people are engaged in agricultural employment is to address the concerns of the farmers by addressing the shortcomings of the existing system. Those who passed the bill have raised the concerns of the farmers through a bill which does not provide any legal protection to the farmers other than writing price guarantee.Legislation in the agricultural sector, which is also part of the state governments, was not something that could be implemented very quickly without consulting the state governments and holding detailed discussions and consultations.
When passing bills affecting the poor peasants working on the land, the opinions of the poorest peasants should have been given first priority over any other. The most appropriate course of action was to strengthen the existing mandi system and take steps to prevent exploitation of farmers.
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