Farmers’ groups associated with the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of farmers’ organizations, are in an early stage of renewing their movement. SKM has prepared a charter of demands which is being presented to various Members of Parliament, initially in Punjab. According to a recent report in The Tribune (Chandigarh edition, 18 July, news report by Neeraj Mohan titled ‘Farmers renew stir, submit charter of demands to MPs’).
As the demands to be taken up more formally with the government are still to be finalized, this is a good time to discuss the charter of demands.
According to The Tribune report, the charter of demands being presented to MPs has six main demands two of which can be grouped together, and hence there are actually five main demands.
The two demands relating to insurance say that firstly, there should be a comprehensive public sector insurance cover for all crops and livestock and secondly, related to this, that the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana should be scrapped. This demand is basically related to reform of crop and livestock insurance and shifting it to public sector. Basically the direction of the reform is good but if the scheme is to work well at the practical level, a lot of work will have to go into working out the details. It may be a good idea to work this out for several clusters in various states in the first year and then learning from its experience, extend the reformed scheme to the entire country in perhaps two phases.
Another demand is that there should be Rs. 10,000 per month pension for farmers and farm workers. Although it is not specifically mentioned in the report, probably this is meant for those over 60 years and both men and women are to be covered. However if this is agreed, then there is no reason why urban workers not covered by other pensions should be denied this benefit. So actually what is involved here is the idea of universal pension. The Pension Parishad has already worked out the details of a financially viable scheme which says in brief that all those over 60 years not already covered by a higher sum pension scheme should get a pension which is at least half of the monthly minimum wage. Another benefit of this scheme is that as minimum wage is revised at regular intervals, the pension will also increase on its own. This is an eminently desirable scheme which is possible in financial terms to implement. If the farmers take it up as a demand for universal pension, lots of other organizations will extend their support too.
The third demand of the SKM is that India should exit the WTO agreement on agriculture. This demand has been raised several times earlier too and there is much that is wrong with the WTO. Still, farmers may find it useful to consider all the relevant aspects before finalizing the exact wording of this demand.
Fourthly, the SKM has repeated the long-voiced demand of MSP for crops based on the MS Swaminathan Committee’s report. This is a demand that needs to be reconsidered and should be raised in a different way. If the government creates a very encouraging price even for crops produced in ecologically harmful ways, then unintentionally a strong incentive for fast spread ad further accentuations of ecologically harmful practices will be created. This happened in some western countries also with very harmful results. So instead the government should be asked to ensure a very fair and encouraging price for the crops produced in ecologically protective ways. In this way the procurement based on fair price and MSP also becomes an instrument for spread of ecologically protective farming. What is more those farmers who adopt such practices should also get support under the climate finance funds. The great thing is that the farmers who have been following ecologically protective policies have also been able to reduce their dependence on external inputs and hence they have also been able to reduce their costs, so why are not farmers’ organizations looking at this potential of reducing costs by reducing external inputs? Many of the farmers adopting ecologically protective practices have been able to maintain good yield while the healthier food produced by them is capable of fetching higher price even in the open market.
Last but not the least, the SKM has asked for a complete loan waiver for farmers and agricultural workers. Anyone concerned with the welfare of farmers would give a very high priority to freedom from indebtedness for them, but as past experience has shown (there have been several loan waivers earlier) there are several aspects to be considered like the fact that a lot of indebtedness is also to private lenders. In addition as long as high costs of farming continue and technologies are of non-sustainable type, if soil is getting depleted and water levels are going down, then debts are bound to emerge again even if there is a loan waiver now. In addition if a lot of money continues to be drained on several wasteful or harmful expenses, again debts will increase. Hence what is needed is for rural communities to also work on voluntary reform efforts, such as for ecologically protective and low external input farming, backed by some important social reforms, and then also raise the demand for debt relief. In this way the entire situation will become much more helpful and hopeful.
At present the demands as presented to MPs need more work and should be revised in some important ways before these are finalized for presenting to the government. The agenda can not be a narrow one of trying to get as much money and concessions out of the government. What is needed is a holistic vision of protecting the sustainable livelihoods of farmers based on protecting the basic resource base of soil and water and overall environment protection.
Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include India’s Quest for Sustainable Farming and Healthy Food, Protecting Earth for Children, When the Two Streams Met and Man over Machine.
