Thousands of Indian farmers renewed their protest efforts on Wednesday, March 6, marching on the capital city of Delhi to demand minimum price guarantees for their produce.
This comes after the farmers’ unions paused their demonstrations following the death of a young farmer during a protest at the end of February.
In response, the government has barricaded Delhi’s borders and deployed police.
In terms of India’s political climate, farmers are a vital voting group in the country and, with general elections approaching between April and May, it’s thought that the federal government of prime minister Narendra Modi would not want to alienate them.
Talks with the government have now broken down at least three times after the authorities did not meet all of the unions’ demands.
Why are farmers protesting in India?
As well as demanding assured pricing for their crops, Indian farmers are also calling for pensions for the elderly, the waiving of debts, and for the Indian government to withdraw from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and scrap all free trade agreements.
Those protesting also argue that the government should double the number of work days under the rural employment guarantee scheme from 100 to 200 per year.
From Wednesday, March 6, two farmers’ unions put out the call across the country for farmers to converge in Delhi via public transport. The unions are also calling for trains to be stopped for four hours on March 10.
The demands of the current protests echo those from 2020, where a series of protests overtook Delhi. Farmer unions then said that proposed rules around the sale, pricing and storage of farm produce would put them at a disadvantage against big companies.
After several months of protests, the federal government agreed to the demands and withdrew from the proposed rules in November 2021.
