New Delhi

Harinder Kaur Bindu, is a prominent presence at the ongoing farmers’ agitation against the new agri laws, at Tikri, on the outskirts of the national capital, Delhi. She is the president of the women’s wing of a farmers’ organisation called Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta (BKU), Ugraha, operating in more than 20 districts of Punjab and western Haryana. Many of them have camped at the protest sites and are making their voices heard not just at the protest sites on Delhi’s border but also at kisan panchayats back home.

On March 8, Women’s Day, thousands of women farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh made their way to the protest sites on the borders of Delhi to add their support to the agitation. It was not just to protest the new agri laws, but also to highlight their role in agriculture in the country.  According to Oxfam India’s 2018 report titled ‘Move Over Sons of The Soil: Why You Need to Know the Female Farmers That Are Revolutionizing Agriculture in India’, 80 per cent of rural women are employed in the agriculture sector. These include 33 per cent as agricultural labourers and 48 per cent self-employed farmers. Yet, the contribution of women to the agrarian economy is largely ignored.

Taking time off from her various duties at the protest site, Harinder Kaur told Gaon Connection that she saw agitation as a big step forward for many of the women farmers.

“One of the major achievements of the farmers’ agitation has been its ability to pull women out of the confines of domesticity,” Harinder said. There are a significant number of women who are engaged in farming, and the agricultural laws are as devastating for them as they are for men, so they need to raise their voice for their rights as farmers, she pointed out.   

Women in their thousands have been present at the agitation since November 26 last year. While many of them are there with their families, others have come alone leaving their families behind in the villages. Then, there are those who have stayed back in the villages tending to their farms while their husbands are out protesting.

Also Read: Kaur Competency: As tens of thousands of farmers leave for Delhi for the protest, women in rural Punjab are safeguarding their home and hearth

A liberating experience

“The first time I came to Delhi was when I came to visit the Bangla Sahib Gurudwara. Twelve years later, I am back, to commemorate Women’s Day, and demand my rights,” Paramjit Kaur from Chak Saroke village in Fazilka in Punjab, told Gaon Connection. The 60-year-old is camped at the Tikri border. 

For 70-year-old Balveer Kaur, also from Fazilka, it is exhilarating to see so many women around. “Even after my marriage, I never stepped out anywhere with my husband. We don’t have much freedom to even move about in the village,” she said.

Both Paramjit and Balveer believe that the women coming out in droves to register their protest is the first step on the path to progress in their lives. “The agitation is an indicator of societal change and that women are becoming conscious of their rights,” Paramjit said.  

Amrita Kundu is from a farming household in Haryana. “Without women, the agitation could not have been a success. The contribution of women in farming is much more crucial than that of men,” she declared. She said that despite hampered electricity and water supply at the protest sites, the women had not budged from there. “They will not back down until their demands are met,” Kundu told Gaon Connection.

Meeting challenges 

The journey has been far from easy. Mahinder Kaur, from Sangrur in Punjab confessed it was not very comfortable sitting in on the protest in the heat. But the 70-year-old is determined that she will stay there for as long as it takes. “If they don’t care enough for the farmers’ lives, we are willing to sit here for years,” she said.  

Living outdoors, struggling with no washroom facilities, having to walk for considerable distances in order to defecate in the open are the challenges the women faced in the past few months since they have camped here.  

“There are about five hundred women volunteers at Tikri border taking care of the safety of the main stage where all the speeches and discussions happen,” Kamalpreet of Old Bagha in Moga district of Punjab told Gaon Connection. “The main stage is the life of the movement, that is where all the decisions are pronounced. It is where the farmer leaders connect with the agitators,” Kamalpreet, who has been at Tikri for three months, explained. 

There have been other outcomes of the agitation, subtle shifts in gender roles too, smiled Harinder Kaur. “We have always worked on the fields; what really has changed is that men have started doing work we traditionally did,” she said. “While we are here protesting on the border, our husbands are taking care of children back at home. They are cooking and feeding and sending the kids to school. This is a big change,” she said.

The agitation has seen new life breathed into several women farmers organisations that had not been active before.

But there is still a long way to go, said many of the women farmers. “Several girls, even today, are married off early. They are not at liberty to pursue their studies even if they want to,” Swaranjit Kaur, a resident of Shri Muktsar Sahib, said.  “My mother is illiterate. But I managed to study at a village school in another village. There was no college around my village for higher studies,” Swaranjit Kaur said. 

Even at the protest site there was gender discrimination, Swaranjit pointed out. “Many disapprove of women doing ‘men’s jobs. Sweeping, chopping vegetables, etc. is still assigned to women at the site,” she said.

Meanwhile many of the farmer leaders are hailing the role of women in the protest. “The women’s contribution to the movement has been profound. I salute the courage and passion of the women,” Joginder Singh Ugraha, the president of BKU Ekta (Ugraha), told Gaon Connection. He acknowledged that it was inconceivable that the agitation would have come so far without them.

Women’s participation in agricultural activities cannot be ignored, Darshan Pal, farmer leader and member of Samyukt Kisan Morcha told Gaon Connection. “Women from every section of society, whether tribal or Dalit, have joined this movement and that is a very big thing,” he said.

Read the story in Hindi here.