Farmers make their Voices Heard: State of Civil Society Report 2021

2021 State of Civil Society Report: https://civicus.org/documents/SOCS2021Part3.pdf#page=4

For many small farmers, the government’s changes threatened to undermine further their already precarious livelihoods. In the time of the pandemic, when so many people were struggling and worried, they questioned why the government saw fit to make such sweeping changes, and at such speed. They saw in the new laws an irreversible transfer of power away from small and medium farmers towards vast corporations. With reduced regulations, large companies would have the power to demand aggressively lower prices and greater discounts and build up stockpiles, against which small farmers would have little negotiating power. Protesting farmers therefore saw the changes as working in the interests of wealthy business owners, including those close to the Modi regime; anger focused on the Adani Group and Reliance, two large corporations headed by tycoons with close links to the Prime Minister. Many farmers switched their mobile phone provider from a Reliance-owned company to other firms as part of their protest.

References in the Report

https://thewire.in/government/rajya-sabha-farm-bills-rules-violation-speaker

https://www.statista.com/statistics/271320/distribution-of-the-workforce-across-economic-sectors-in-india/

https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/maharashtra-crosses-60000-farm-suicides/

https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/and-you-thought-its-only-about-farmers/

https://www.newsclick.in/Under-Modi-Rule-Ambani-Adani-Have-Doubled-Their-Wealth

https://thewire.in/agriculture/farmer-protest-jio-networks-airtel-vodafone-idea

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-54930384

https://time.com/5942125/women-india-farmers-protests/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/08/world/asia/india-farmer-protests-police-detain.html

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-india-farms-protests-britain-idUKKBN28G0O2

https://monitor.civicus.org/updates/2021/02/03/singapore-targets-peaceful-protesters-and-continues-judicial-harassment-critics/