Agriculture

US Firm Takes Down Private Network Profiling Indian Activists Opposing Pesticides, GMO After Reports

The company confirmed the removal of over 500 profiles on the network after a legal review of European data privacy rules, and threats of litigation, following a media investigation.

Mumbai/London/Athens: A US-based reputation management firm involved in monitoring activities of those critical of pesticides and genetically modified (GM) crops on a private social network has ceased its profiling operations following an investigation led by investigative newsroom Lighthouse Reports, and shared with The Wire and other international media partners.

The Missouri-based firm v-Fluence Interactive, headed by a former Monsanto executive, Jay Byrne, confirmed in an official statement on December 9, 2024, that the company has removed its Bonus Eventus portal that served as a “stakeholder wiki” hosting profiles of over 500 individuals globally. The private network included profiles of prominent Indian environmentalist Vandana Shiva, ecologist Debal Deb, organisations like Pesticide Action Network (PAN) India and other scientists and academics.

Among other findings, the investigation revealed that v-Fluence had received funding from the now-reduced US Agency for International Development (USAID) for Bonus Eventus via the International Food Policy Research Institute. The sub-contracts were aimed at countering criticism of “modern agriculture approaches” in Asia and Africa, according to public records obtained by Lighthouse Reports.

The investigation also highlighted that v-Fluence and Byrne are co-defendants in a lawsuit against global pesticide giant Syngenta, for suppressing information on the dangers of paraquat herbicide, alleged to have caused Parkinson’s disease among farmers in the US. Byrne had denied the allegations of the lawsuit, saying they were based on claims which were “manufactured and false”.

In India too, Syngenta came under scrutiny in 2017 after the Yavatmal pesticide poisoning scandal in Maharashtra that claimed the lives of at least 20 farmers. Farmers had alleged that Syngenta had failed to provide sufficient information regarding the risks of its pesticide ‘Polo’. Syngenta, however, maintained that there’s no evidence proving that its product caused the tragedy.

Narasimha Reddy Donthi, an independent policy analyst and consultant with PAN India, who has also worked closely with farmers in Yavatmal for securing compensation from Syngenta, says that the removal of the profiles is a “positive outcome”.

“However, they have to tell why they did that and for whom. Furthermore, we need to know how US funds got involved in such an enterprise. We need a deterrence – a official promise,” Donthi adds.

Legal concerns, lost clients and threats of litigation

v-Fluence said in its official statement in December last year that the removal of profiles comes after an “independent legal review” of obligations under the European data privacy rules. They also informed that the firm will “continue to offer stakeholder research with updated guidelines to avoid future misinterpretations of our work product”.

In an emailed statement, Byrne confirmed that the profiles had been removed, but said that they had been taken down prior to the legal review in light of litigation and threats of litigation.

According to reporting from David Zaruk, a Bonus Eventus member who was a recipient of Byrne’s emails, v-Fluence had to lay off around 40 staff after industry clients cancelled their contracts.

The investigation, published in September last year, revealed that v-Fluence’s Bonus Eventus was accessible to over 1,000 members, including many executives associated with global agrochemical companies, lobbyists and government members.

The eight Indians who had access to the Bonus Eventus portal include Raghavan Sampathkumar, the executive director of the Federation of Seed Industry of India (FSII); and Anand Ranganathan, consulting editor of the Indian right-wing magazine Swarajya, and a former staff research scientist at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB).

Notably, the FSII is involved in a project with the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare for deploying technologies to agro-ecological zones allotted for cotton production. The ICGEB also works with the Union Ministry of Science and Technology, for supporting biotech research and development. However, Ranganathan informed Lighthouse Reports and The Wire that he was unaware of the network and denied association with v-Fluence.

‘What about the harm already done?’

A number of profiles on the Bonus Eventus portal contained personal information such as phone number, email and residential address, details of people’s personal website, and income among other details of the individuals. Indian activists profiled on the network expressed concerns about potential misuse of data by those having access to such data.

In a written statement last year, Byrne had informed that the private, community-edited wiki platform includes only “publicly available and referenced information”, asserting that, “Any contact or other information which may appear on the wiki is from public records and is used publicly by the source as part of their business or advocacy.”

However, technology lawyer and policy adviser Pranesh Prakash, who had reviewed excerpts from some of the profiles, found that personal data was indeed being processed, and because much of the collected personal data was not made available by the person who was profiled, India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA) applied to it.

Prakash informed that the exception for “research purposes” under DPDPA does not apply if the data is being used to make any decision specific to any of the activists whose personal data has been collected.

Ecologist and seed conservator Debal Deb, who was profiled by v-Fluence, says that the company closing down the network is an “important development”, however, he also raised apprehensions about the harm already done.

“The issue is that no one knows what and how much harm these corporate agents have already perpetrated to the lives and careers of the scientists and environmental activists. A public announcement of dismantling a website does not absolve the decades-long crime of appropriation of citizens’ personal data, nor atone for the intangible damages to the individuals,” says Deb.

India Is Growing More Cereals But Eating Less

India’s food grain production has steadily increased in the last few decades. But this period has also witnessed a sharp decline in per capita monthly cereal consumption.

This article was originally published by CEDA.

In recent decades, food grain production in India has grown significantly. This progress, due to increased cultivated area and improved yields, has enhanced per capita food grain availability. In the same period, food consumption patterns have shown a decline in per capita consumption of key grains. This article examines these changes, highlighting regional and demographic trends in food grain production, availability, and dietary habits across the country. The trends underscore shifts in India’s food security landscape and the challenges for ensuring balanced nutrition for a diverse and growing population.

Food grain production

Between 1993-94 and 2023-24, India saw a steady rise in food grain production. The cultivated area expanded from 122.8 million hectares in 1993-94 to 132.1 million hectares in 2023-24, a modest increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 0.2 percent, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare data shows (see Figure 1). Yield improvements also played a major role, with the average yield growing from 1501 kg per hectare in 1993-94 to 2515 kg per hectare in 2023-24, at a CAGR of 1.7 percent (see Figure 2). As a result, total food grain production rose from 184.3 million tonnes to 332.3 million tonnes over this period.

Per capita availability of food grains

The net per capita monthly availability of food grains has improved, rising from 14.1 kg in 1993 to 17.3 kg in 2023. Although the availability of cereals has generally increased, that of pulses has fluctuated in a narrow band (see Figure 3).

Shifts in consumption patterns

It is noteworthy that while availability has increased, consumption has declined, especially for cereals. In rural India, average per capita cereal consumption fell from 13.4 kg per month in 1993-94 to 9.6 kg in 2022-23 and further to 9.4 kg 2023-24, and in urban areas, it dropped from 10.6 kg to 8 kg, data from various NSS surveys on household consumption expenditure shows. The downward trend spans all major cereals, including rice, wheat, and other grains.

The consumption of pulses remained steady between 1993-94 and 2023-24. While the rural per capita monthly consumption of pulses was 760 grams in 1993-94 and 742 grams in 2023-24, the consumption of pulses in urban areas was 860 grams in 1993-94 and 801 grams in 2023-24(see figure 4). The share of food grain in total monthly expenditure also decreased, reflecting broader dietary changes, with spending on cereals dropping sharply, while expenditure on processed foods, beverages, and animal-based products grew.

This shift aligns with the Engel’s law, which suggest that as family income rises, the proportion of expenditure on food decreases, even though the absolute amount spent on food may increase, and Bennett’s laws, which suggest that as incomes rise, people spend proportionately less on staple foods and more on diverse foods such as meat, dairy, fruits, and vegetables (see here & here).

Both rural and urban areas in India reflect this trend, with food expenditure as a share of total consumption expenditure falling from 63.2 percent in 1993-94 to a low of 46.4 percent in rural areas in 2022-23 and further increasing marginally to 47 percent in 2023-24. While, for urban areas the share of food expenditure fell from 54.7 percent to 39.2 percent in 2022-23 and again increased marginally to 39.7 percent in 2023-24 (see figures 5 and 6).

The share of expenditure on cereals fell significantly from 24.2 percent in 1993-94 to just 5 percent in 2023-24 for rural areas and from 14 percent to 3.8 percent for urban areas. The share of fruits and nuts, beverages, refreshments, and processed food, and non-vegetarian food (egg, fish and meat) in monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) has increased significantly for both rural and urban areas. Whereas, the share of cereals, pulses, vegetables, edible oils, and milk in monthly per capita expenditure has gone down in both rural and urban areas.

Geographical variations in consumption

Regional differences are also notable. States in the east—West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, and Jharkhand—show higher cereal consumption rates, while states like Punjab, Haryana, Kerala, and Delhi consume significantly less (see Figures 7 and 8). Pulses consumption patterns reveal that urban populations generally consume more pulses than rural counterparts, with the northeastern states reporting the lowest consumption overall. Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have the highest per capita pulses consumption for both rural and urban populations. (Figure 9)

Decile class consumption trends

Cereal consumption has seen a notable decline across income deciles over time. In rural areas, the bottom 10 percent of the population reduced their monthly cereal consumption from 10.5 kilograms in 1993-94 to 8.6 kilograms in 2023-24 with most of the fall for this population group coming in the last decade – monthly per capita cereal consumption fell by 1.8 kilograms in 2023-24 from 10.4 kilograms in 2011-12. Though, the gap in the cereal consumption between the top 10 percent and the bottom 10 percent has reduced significantly. The bottom 10 percent of the population consumed 31.6 percent less food grains than those in the top 10 percent of the population in 1993-94, which declined to just 10.4 percent in 2023-24. However, this is not true for urban areas. The trend highlights persistent disparities between rural and urban areas. Interestingly, in urban regions, higher-income groups often consume less cereal than lower-income groups. For instance, in 2023-24, the bottom 10 percent of urban consumers consumed 8 kilograms per month, 10 percent more than those in top 10 percent who consumed 7.2 kilograms per month.

Conclusion

India’s food grain scenario showcases the interplay between rising production along with evolving consumption patterns. While increased production has enhanced food grain availability, changing dietary preferences and a decline in per capita cereal consumption call for a reevaluation of nutritional policies. Variations across states and income groups further emphasize the need for region-specific approaches to address food security and dietary needs.

Additionally, a shift in agricultural priorities is emerging, with an increasing focus on crop diversification from cereals to high-value crops like pulses and edible oils. Such diversification not only aligns with changing consumer preferences but also holds potential to improve farmer incomes and promote sustainable agricultural practices. Striking a balance between production, equitable distribution, and dietary diversity will be essential for ensuring both food and nutritional security in the years ahead.

Kulvinder Singh is a research analyst at CEDA.

Budget 2025-26: Agriculture Is the Engine of Growth, But Not For Farmers

The farmers’ protest 2.0 still simmers at the Shambhu and Kinnuri borders and yet the budget speech finds no mention of a minimum support price.

In her 2025-2026 budget, finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman said that agriculture is the first engine of growth. But for who? Who stands to benefit most from the current budget? Is it the farmers, corporations or someone else? Is the government really trying to build a self-sufficient agrarian India or is this just another promise?

The past decade, with Narendra Modi at the helm of affairs, has been a very difficult time for Indian agriculture, especially for farmers. They have been battling erratic weather, falling income, rising rural debt, deteriorating soil, price volatility and the the three central farm laws which were then rolled back. Rural consumption and expenditure have both fallen for the farmers. And the government’s limited data on rural income, especially from agriculture, points to a very different reality. Yet it seems nothing has been said to tackle these real-time challenges.

The farmers’ protest 2.0 still simmers at the Shambhu and Kinnuri borders and yet the budget speech finds no mention of a minimum support price.

Loans

The finance minister, in her speech, gave an outline for the Modi government’s agrarian vision for the coming year. The most important announcement was the increase of the loan limit for farmers under the modified interest subvention scheme from Rs 3 lakhs to Rs 5 lakhs.

The NABARD website tells you that this scheme has been active since the United Progressive Alliance government, and basically allows for debt relief for farmers by restructuring their interest rates with the bank. Under the scheme, farmers can obtain up to Rs 3 lakhs at the standard rate of 9%. However, the Union government offers a 2% interest subsidy on this rate, effectively lowering the rate of interest to 7%. Additionally, those who repay their loans on time receive an extra 3% concession, reducing the final interest rate to 4% per annum.

As per NABARD, the amount of subvention was to be calculated on the amount of crop loan from the date of disbursement up to the actual date of repayment of the crop loan by the farmer or up to the due date of the loan fixed by the banks, whichever is earlier, subject to a maximum period of one year.

We are still to understand finer details of the scheme. But one this is sure this scheme is more for the burden of rural credit on rural banks and lesser for farmers, as no concrete steps are announced to attack the source problems which are pushing farmers into debt, like rising prices of agri-chemicals, fertilisers and fuel. Erratic weather has played havoc with farmers incomes too.

Rural debt is also rising as various farmers from across the country are maxed out on their Kisan Credit Cards and have little chance of repaying them in the near future. Hence there are constant demands for debt waiver by various farmers’ groups.

Rural indebtedness has grown over the decade and no steps were taken to boldly address this issue.

Old scheme, new budget

The second ambitious project was the Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana aiming to target 100 districts with the lowest agricultural productivity, moderate crop intensity, and limited access to credit – the rain-fed and remote areas. We don’t know if it will suffer the same fate as the Farmers Producer Organisation programme or the programme for creating district-wise agri-clusters.

These schemes underline key themes like expansion of irrigation, sustainable agriculture, and access to long-term and short-term credit for farmers. But the budget 2025-26 could very well be rebuilding old and existing schemes under a new name. Expansion of irrigation was already the mandate of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana, sustainable agriculture was the mission of the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana and as for giving access to newer credit options from banks – that has also been the goal of the government. The penetration of formal financial institutions into the rural country has been a long time aspiration of banks and the government. Time will be the best judge of the claim that the scheme will reach 1.7 crore farmers.

The next big theme was “building rural prosperity and resilience,” which the government plans to achieve by “skilling, investments, and bringing newer global technologies” to Indian farms. The first phase will have 100 districts and it will be financed through multilateral banks. We have to slowly decode this statement, what does the finance minister really mean? As far as global technologies are concerned, are we thinking of getting more industrial agriculture or genetically modified crops to India? Also, how will we bring more investments? If the government plans to create more public-private “partnerships” between Big Ag corporations like Bayer or tech companies Amazon and Microsoft, one can be sure that the farmers won’t be the beneficiaries. The National Biodiversity Act has already been amended under Modi and now allows for foreign companies and interest groups to access our plant genetic resources and be treated as Indian companies especially in the seed sector.

Expecting more

Indians farmers should be very careful of these schemes as they may try and implement the spirit of the farm laws through another route. One of the key reasons for stating this is that the agriculture budget for 2025-26 is Rs 12,7290.16 lakh crore which is slightly lower than the revised estimates for 2024-25 which was Rs 13,1195.21 lakh crore. Even if we compare it to the budget estimate of 2024-25 which was Rs 12,2528.77 lakh crore, the increased budget for 2025-2026 is barely meeting the previous years’, after the inflation rate is considered. So this begs the question, are we doing well economically? With dollar at over Rs 86 and fuel at an all-time high, it would be hard to provide much-needed capital infusion in agriculture. The financial situation also bleeds the national mission on high yielding seeds because there no substantial increase for research and development within the public seed sector or the ICAR. So where will the seeds come from? Is it by partnering with private seed companies?

The finance minister also announced a scheme for vegetables, but perhaps India can expect more. In two previous budgets, Sitharaman had ambitiously said that they will battle the price fluctuations in vegetables with two programmes – TOP (tomato, onion and potatoes) and operation greens. Both seemed to have disappeared in thin air and India battled the worst vegetable price inflation in decades. Indian farmers needed a more concrete programme for improving vegetable production and supply chain logistics, and not generic statements.

The big silver lining in the budget is the six-year pulses programme under which the government will procure a maximum of three pulses from farmers over the next four years. This move could ensure that minimum support prices reach the farmers. It also stabilises the pulses market and strengthens India’s lentil production which was in decline. India’s pulses import also doubled to a record 66.33 lakh tonnes during 2024.

Another good step is the government’s decision to set up another gene bank for the conservation of plant germ plasm. Hopefully this is not being built in the public-private partnership mode and is strictly kept within the public sector with all ascensions or genetic material the sole property of Indians. Private foreign corporations shouldn’t be allowed to fund it or steal gene material from it.

But overall, this is a budget expressing the vision of a government which seems to have been affected sorely by privatisation. Agriculture is the engine of growth for our country, but the agri budgets of the Modi government over the last decade leads one to wonder for how long one begins to think for how long.

Indra Shekhar Singh is an independent agri-policy analyst and writer.

Budget 2025: A Step Forward, But for Whom?

It would be unrealistic to think that the problems of the agriculture sector can be addressed in a Union budget.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman began her budget speech with the importance of higher agricultural growth, productivity and achieving rural prosperity. While the middle classes, especially the richer deciles, got substantial relief through income tax exemptions and change of slab rates, the farmers got some good promises which may help them in earning higher incomes.

Ironically, there was no reference to doubling of farmers income which has been the dominant theme in discussions on agriculture ever since the same was announced in an election rally in 2015. The data presently available does not show that the incomes have doubled. In fact, the farmers of several major crops, which include pulses and oilseeds also, have not even been able to realise the MSP this year for their produce. Soybean, tur and chana are examples.

It would be unrealistic to think that the problems of the agriculture sector can be addressed in a Union budget. There are a lot of other important sectors of economy whose challenges and opportunities must be addressed while also maintaining fiscal discipline. It is not a mean achievement that in the revised estimate of FY 2025, the fiscal deficit has been kept to 4.8% of GDP. The finance minister needs to be complimented for this.

Remunerative prices for fruits and vegetables is a good idea

Taking cognizance of the findings of the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey, the finance minister has noted that consumption of vegetables, fruits and shree-anna (millet grains) has been increasing. In fact, it is the consumption of processed food which is rising faster than other food items.

In 2023-24, the share of expenditure on processed food and beverages was 11.09% in urban areas and 9.84% in rural areas. So, her announcement that efforts will be made to provide remunerative prices to farmers of fruits and vegetables is to be welcomed. In the last two years, vegetable inflation has remained high and it touched 42%. The Economic Survey has devoted a lot of space to tomato, potato and onion prices.

Higher allocation to Ministry of Food Processing industries

In a welcome move, the budget allocation of the Ministry of Food Processing has been increased from Rs 2,797 crore to Rs 4,364 crore. A campus of National Institute of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM) has been announced for Bihar. There is not much food processing in the state, and it is not an ideal location for an institute of national importance.

Also read: Despite the ‘Investing in People’ Rhetoric, Budget 2025 Does Little for the Social Sector

NIFTEM Delhi is considered one of the top institutions for the food processing sector. For students, it would have been better if the institute was in a state where they can learn about food processing actually taking place in factories. The assembly elections in Bihar, scheduled for this October-November may have persuaded the government to locate NIFTEM there.

Makhana Board is welcome

The setting up of a (fox nut) Makhana Board in Bihar, however, will be a much-needed gift to small and marginal farmers engaged in its cultivation. Madhubani and Darbhanga are major producers of Makhana which has a low glycemic index. Bihar’s Mithila Makhana was awarded the Geographical Indication (GI) tag by the government in 2022.

Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has a National Research Centre (NRC) for Makhana at Darbhanga but it has not really lived up to the expectation of growers. One hopes that NRC will have a regular, full time director and the Makhana Board will work in collaboration with the NRC. There is a need to attract private investment so that its supply chain can improve and the cultivators can realise remunerative prices.

Research needs more support

For a long time, it has been argued that allocation for research and development has to be enhanced. However, the Department of Agricultural Research and Development (DARE) has seen only a marginal increase in its allocation. For developing climate resilient varieties of seeds, ICAR needs handsome support.

Soybean prices in Madhya Pradesh

Tur prices in Karnataka

Aatmanirbharta (self-sufficiency)in pulses and oilseeds is a good aspiration

The aspiration to become Aatmanirbhar in pulses and oilseeds is appreciable. Over the last ten years, the government has announced handsome MSP of pulses and oilseeds. The farmers of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh responded to these calls and increased the area under mustard and tur etc. But, the MSPs have not been protected, and farmers have not been able to realise remunerative prices (graphs above).

Also read: For Farmers, Women, the Poor and the Youth, Budget 2025-26 Offers Only Symbolic Changes

In fact, during the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and Odisha, bonus of about Rs 900 per quintal was announced for paddy but no such incentive was announced for oilseeds and pulses.

One hopes that the budget announcement to procure pulses at MSP, through a contract with the farmers will become a reality and the import duties will be so fixed that the landed cost of pulses is not less than the MSP.

There are several welcome initiatives announced in the budget, and we should hope that agriculture will continue to grow at the rate of at least 4% per annum.

Siraj Hussain is a former Union agriculture secretary.

For Farmers, Women, the Poor and the Youth, Budget 2025-26 Offers Only Symbolic Changes

The government continues its big-ticket capital expenditure spree, pouring money into infrastructure while social spending remains a fraction of its overall expenditure.

A lot was being expected from the Union government and the finance minister in their first full year budget in the third term.

This was broadly because there was hope that a roadmap would be proposed for structural change and boosting growth, through consumption and private investment – which has been all weakening over the last eight years, particularly since the demonetisation days of 2016.

The offered fiscal vision in this budget fails in addressing that.

With public debt at nearly 80% of GDP and interest payments eating up a quarter of government revenue, the government stuck to a fiscally cautious script. This is a fiscally tight budget, with an aiming of hitting a fiscal deficit target of below 4.5% by 2026-27. No surprises there – since the finance minister has stuck to the old tune of keeping to fiscal consolidation targets. This time though, it comes at the cost of boosting growth.

In remaining fiscally conservative, the budget missed the opportunity to make bold bets for the short term while delving too much either into the past or the future. Agriculture sector simply got a headline push, with the Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana targeting 100 underperforming districts.

Taxpayers saw some relief, with those earning up to Rs 12 lakh now exempt from income tax under the new tax regime. Note that the Rs 12-lakh limit is not an exempt limit but simply a rebate, requiring all to file income tax regardless of how much they earn. A person earning even one rupee over the Rs 12 lakh rebate would be required to pay the complete tax levied on other lower slabs as well. There isn’t much for the higher upper-middle income group, who, combining all surcharge, would still have an effective tax rate of roughly 39% on earning more than Rs 30 lakhs per annum.

Moreover, any multiplier effect of a marginally higher disposable income for less than 30-31 million of the overall workforce is a drop in the bucket. Its macro-growth impact may hardly be realised in any noticeable margins and despite much brouhaha in the mainstream media, the “middle class tax break” further depends on where any disposable income is saved.

As per the Economic Survey, if 77% of those receiving direct transfers are spending 44% of that on food and more than 31% on loan repayments and essential services, the actual growth dividend of this “saving” from changed tax slabs (with effective rates almost the same) will be very limited, combined with a higher inflationary tax and GST-imposed burden which has been gripping the liquidity landscape for middle-income groups.

On trade policy and combating excessive government regulation on trade, the government offered a rationalisation of the custom duties and import restrictions, with tariff cuts announced on products like synthetic flavours, solar panels, and certain vehicles. These hint at external pressures. These steps are very well being viewed as a move to appease global partners before the prime minister’s upcoming state visits, especially to the US.

We also need to closely assess whether the Union government has genuinely addressed the needs of marginalised communities, particularly the poor, youth, farmers, and women, who were central to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s electoral messaging.

The short answer to this is: to a very limited, marginal extent.

Overall, nothing substantive comes out of the budget for these respective communities who have been reduced to electorally critical groups for a government which is known for using the Budget as a medium to appeal to voters for upcoming state and union elections. This budget’s overt focus on Bihar remains a case in point.

In appearing to sound comprehensive, the 2025-26 budget speech also outlined 10 key areas to drive these objectives, including enhancing agriculture, MSMEs, employment, and innovation. The budget claims to empower the poor, youth, farmers, and women while promoting balanced regional growth. But it does not deliver on this.

This government celebrates a dip in urban unemployment to 6.4%, but – let’s be honest – this is barely movement from 6.6% in the last quarter. More troubling is the kind of jobs being created, as economists like Arvind Subramanian have recently pointed out.

Most of the new employment is in low-wage and informal sectors which offers little security or upward mobility. The economy needs 78.5 lakh new non-farm jobs every year to keep up with the workforce, yet there’s no clear roadmap to get there.

MSMEs which are undisputed backbone of employment with over 23.24 crore workers should be thriving. Instead, they are drowning in delayed payments and credit shortages. Despite all the talk of supporting small businesses, fundamental issues remain unsolved.

The government’s focus on gig work and entrepreneurship as employment solutions by giving them health insurance and ID cards, though important, feels more like a way to dodge real labour market reform than a serious job creation strategy.

Source: Union Budget 2025-2026.

Empowering the poor: Credit and livelihoods

A key highlight of the budget is the expanded credit access in form of guarantees for the micro and small enterprises (MSMEs). The government has increased the credit guarantee cover from Rs 5 crore to Rs 10 crore, unlocking an additional Rs 1.5 lakh crore in credit over the next five years. This move is expected to empower small businesses, promoting entrepreneurship and job creation at the grassroots level.

Another development is the introduction of customised credit cards with a Rs 5-lakh limit for micro-enterprises registered on the Udyam portal, which, only if effectively implemented, could significantly enhance financial inclusion for small entrepreneurs who often face challenges in accessing formal credit.

Additionally, the extension of the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana may help ensure the continued provision of free food grains to over 80 crore people for another five years. The budget seeks to also allocate financial assistance for education, offering loans up to Rs 10 lakh with interest subvention for students from low-income families. The actual disbursement process of funds for these and the implementation timeline of this remains a big question, as seen for other rural and low-income welfare schemes too.

On agriculture: Do farmers benefit?

The budget falls short of addressing the need for higher Minimum Support Prices (MSP) and additional procurement mechanisms, which are crucial for ensuring farmers’ income security.

The government’s broader strategy focuses on enhancing agricultural productivity through advanced farming techniques, fostering sustainable practices, and expanding irrigation infrastructure to reduce crop wastage and increase output.

It introduced the Pradhan Mantri Dhan Dhanya Krishi Yojana, aimed at boosting productivity, promoting crop diversification, and enhancing post-harvest storage at the panchayat and block levels. The programme shall target 100 districts with low agricultural productivity, aiming to improve infrastructure and provide better access to resources in struggling regions. While these efforts reflect a long-term vision for agricultural sustainability, concerns persist regarding immediate financial relief for farmers.

Moreover, facilitating access to both long-term and short-term credit for farmers is a key component to ensure their financial well-being. The rural prosperity initiative is also introduced to further support these efforts, aiming to uplift rural communities and stimulate overall agricultural development.

Women: Access to credit versus systemic barriers

A significant announcement is the Rs 2 crore term loan scheme for five lakh first-time entrepreneurs who are women, or from the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes. This initiative aligns with efforts to bridge gender or societal disparities in financial access. According to an IFC report (2022), 90% of female entrepreneurs in India have never borrowed from formal financial institutions, highlighting the need for such targeted interventions.

Additionally, the expansion of Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 to cover eight crore children, one crore pregnant mothers, and 20 lakh adolescent girls reflects a marginally targeted approach to improving women’s and children’s health. By ensuring sustained nutritional support, particularly for lactating mothers and adolescent girls, this initiative has the potential to drive long-term improvements in community health outcomes. This comes at a time when India performs at the worst possible level on various nutritional access pillars and indices.

While increasing access to agri-credit is a positive step, addressing systemic barriers within the announced and existing schemes, and on issues such as workplace inclusion, safety, and labour force participation remains crucial. India’s ranking in the Global Gender Gap Index suggests that economic empowerment for women requires a multifaceted approach beyond just financial support.

Social sector spending

The government talks a big game on social welfare – education, healthcare, rural development – but does the budget back it up?

On paper, social sector spending has increased, but when measured against inflation, population growth, and the actual needs of citizens, the numbers start to look less generous.

Total net receipts for the centre are estimated at Rs 28.37 lakh crore, while total expenditure stands at Rs 50.65 lakh crore, signalling continued fiscal constraints. The government may boast about keeping the fiscal deficit at 4.4% of GDP, but at what cost? When interest payments alone swallow nearly a quarter of total revenue, what’s left for genuine welfare spending?

Take education – an area where India desperately needs improvement. The budget allocations suggest a push, but in real terms, funding struggles to keep pace with rising student numbers and the infrastructure deficit in government schools.

Healthcare tells a similar story: expanding medical education and cancer care centres are welcome moves, but public health funding as a percentage of GDP remains abysmally low. Rural development programmes see a modest uptick, yet high unemployment and rural distress raise questions about whether these schemes are enough to move the needle.

Meanwhile, the government continues its big-ticket capital expenditure spree, pouring money into infrastructure while social spending remains a fraction of its overall expenditure. The balance between long-term economic growth and immediate welfare needs is crucial – but is this government tilting too far toward optics-driven mega-projects while leaving social security an afterthought?

It would appear so – reflecting a confused and politically motivated economic ideology that lacks a clear vision for securing growth and development for all.

Budget 2025 Must Ensure Higher Investment in Agriculture and Rural Development

The ninth episode of ‘Budget 2025: What’s at Stake?’ sheds light on the ongoing farmers’ struggles at Singhu border.

In the ninth episode of ‘Budget 2025: What’s at Stake?’, farmers’ rights activist and general secretary of All India Kisan Sabha Vijoo Krishnan sheds light on the ongoing farmers’ struggles at Singhu border and the government’s indifference toward their demand for a legalised minimum support price. He also outlines critical measures the upcoming Budget must include to address the agrarian crisis and support India’s farmers.

This series is a collaboration between the Centre for Financial Accountability and The Wire.

Are Deliberate Documentation Errors Denying Bengal Tea Workers Access to State Welfare?

Governance mechanisms continue to fall short of addressing the fundamental rights of communities living in the tea gardens of northern West Bengal, a study has found.

Tea gardens have long been critical pivots of colonial and post-colonial administration and governance, subjected to the scrutiny of various agencies – including tea management boards, political unions, government officials, and various development organisations.

However, a recent fieldwork, in July 2024, with a community of tea garden workers revealed persistent challenges faced in accessing state welfare, especially due to documentation discrepancies.

Governance mechanisms often continue to fall short of addressing the fundamental rights of communities living in the tea gardens of northern West Bengal.

During interviews and focused group discussions (FGD), tea garden workers highlighted persistent challenges they face in availing entitlements due to various irregularities in information dissemination due to discrepancies in vital documents such as voter cards, Aadhaar cards, ration cards, PAN cards, and reservation certificates, and errors in paperwork during the application process.

Many of them often remain unaware of the errors in their documentation or even the status of their applications, creating layers of obstacles. Moreover, they speculated that the source of discrepancies arises not only from systemic ignorance or lack of awareness but also from deliberate actions of the corrupt individuals with socio-political privileges, officers and profit-oriented digitally skilled entrepreneurs.

Also read: How Poverty Is Perpetuating Trafficking In Assam’s Tea Gardens

The burden of discrepancies in documents often flows to the next generation, generating an inter-generational cycle of ‘wrong’ documentation.

The fieldwork was part of an intervention project of the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), carried out in various tea gardens like Bandapani, Tasati, Binaguri, Huntapara, Dalgaon, etc., from districts like Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar. It aimed at assessing the outcomes of the program called SoochnaPreneur, qualitatively.

Under the intervention, sixteen women were recruited as SoochnaPreneurs and trained to run digitally enabled community centres for public service. A few of them, from the village of Bandapani, situated in the isolated and undulating terrain of Alipurduar and surrounded by vast tea gardens and interlaced by numerous dry riverbeds, shared their struggles in the interviews and FGDs.

Their challenges can be described in the following ways.

Delayed & networked information dissemination

An FGD, with a group of 9 tea garden workers with mixed gender composition – the age group of 22-56 years – revealed that information-related entitlements remain secluded to a few individuals and networks of the privileged.

Despite the growing efforts to bridge the digital gaps and eradicate information poverty, many estimates suggest that access to information remains a challenge for a large section of Indian societies, as many do not even have access to smartphones or meaningful internet connectivity.

This challenge is far more stressful in villages surrounding the tea gardens of Assam and West Bengal, a recent baseline study of DEF suggests.

For example, only 38.66% of people have a smartphone in the gardens of Jalpaiguri district, while the situation is worse in districts like Cooch Behar (5.80%) of West Bengal, and Dibrugarh (20.89%) and Sonitpur (2.01%) of Assam.

As a consequence of such a striking digital divide, compounded with factors like lower educational attainments among their parents, Sudeshna* and Sitala*, two student participants (pursuing undergraduate degree) stated the following:

Sudeshna: “When the job applications come out, we usually find out later that the form was available, and by then, the time has already passed. It would have been better if we had known earlier.”

Sitala: “If we could get updates as soon as the forms are released and know about it in advance, we could apply on time.”

During the ‘Duare Sarkar’ initiatives of the West Bengal government, which aimed to deliver services and welfare schemes at the doorsteps of the people through outreach camps, the participants emphasised about information asymmetry in receiving timely notifications, often via mobile phones, while the majority remained unaware due to limited access to connectivity and ICTs. For instance, Jopona* shared:

“During Duare Sarkar, only some people received the news, either from the Panchayat office or through mobile notifications. But many didn’t get the information because most people don’t have smartphones, and they spend most of their time working in the gardens.”

The situation is even more challenging in remote villages like Chaibasa, located in the border areas near Bhutan, where internet connectivity is significantly less. Manisha*, at her early 30s from the Chaibasa area of the garden, highlighted the difficulties, stating:

“Our village is surrounded by rivers on all sides, and we don’t even get proper network coverage. We struggle to get all this information here.”

Given such conditions manifested through information inequality and the digital divide, traditional methods of information dissemination have limited reach and often arrive too late.

Also read: More than a Tea-Cup: The Anatomy of a Bonus Deal

Even owning a smartphone does not guarantee timely access to information to the underserved tea garden workers – for whom the process of leaving the village to visit the nearest internet café or Panchayat office is both time-consuming and costly, cutting into already inadequate daily wages.

‘Wrong’ documentation and information poverty

An interview with Laxmi*, a 28-year-old woman graduate running a small ICT service-related business in the village as a SoochnaPreneur, mentioned the transformative potential of socioeconomic growth when one gets information regarding entitlements.

She described the impact of information poverty on marginalised communities in the following way:

Laxmi: “Many people don’t even know if there are errors in their Aadhaar or voter cards. For example, women often face issues because they don’t have caste certificates, which prevents them from accessing benefits like the Lokkhi Bhandar Scheme. Before our centre was established, people would try to apply, often going to the distant Madarihat block office. But they would fill out the forms incorrectly. For instance, if there was an error in the Aadhaar card name, they didn’t know why their application got cancelled. When applying for a caste certificate, they would sometimes submit proof of their husband instead of their father, not realizing that proof from the husband wouldn’t suffice. They would keep reapplying without understanding the reason for rejection. They didn’t even ask why—it was just, ‘We submitted it, but it keeps getting rejected. Who knows why?’ They didn’t understand the cause.”

I asked, “Didn’t the officers tell them anything?”

Laxmi: “The officers were there to explain the forms, but they didn’t tell them, ‘Look, there’s an error in your Aadhaar card, and that’s why it might get rejected.’ They didn’t provide that information. When we started our centre, people came to us asking, ‘Why aren’t we getting the caste certificate? What should we do?’”

The lack of awareness about the ‘wrongs’ in their documents is not only due to systemic barriers in education but also from the kind of support they get from government bodies, which leads to a general mistrust of government processes.

The daunting experience of applying, more so because of the replacement of manual offline systems with digital systems, especially for those who are unfamiliar or had bad experiences with bureaucratic processes, often makes them reluctant about these processes, discouraging them from claiming their rightful entitlements.

Deliberate discrepancies?

Furthermore, discussions also indicated that the discrepancies in documentation arise not only from systemic ignorance or lack of awareness around it but may also be because of deliberate actions. While discussing the sources of such discrepancies, some participants claimed the following:

Sachin*: “We can’t really say, sir…how these things keep happening! They [meant to indicate the officers/businesspersons of internet cafes/or other intermediaries] are told everything properly, but they still make spelling mistakes.”

Jopona: “Maybe, they do it intentionally.”

Laxmi: “It happens, especially when Aadhaar cards are made, some people intentionally make errors. It’s like a cycle—as if they ensure mistakes are there so that people have to return and pay money for corrections. If everything were accurate from the start, where would their income come from?”

Even though it can be a question of human capacity – to be able to correctly spell one’s name by just hearing or by decoding one’s handwriting – there are several measures to keep such problems of misspelling/mismatches in check. Implications of these intentional actions create loopholes that often perpetuate corruption, contributing to barriers to essential services.

In many cases, the participants said that the burden of a single spelling mistake made by others in vital identity documents of tea garden workers often gets reproduced in the documents of their children.

If a generation fails to manage and maintain consistency across documents or any digital records, the burden gets transferred to the next, especially in contexts where parents have received less education, live in isolated terrains, and efforts to correct documents may cost their daily wage.

While highlighting these challenges, they mentioned the intergenerational impact of documentation discrepancies leading to a lack of welfare access:

Sachin: “Yes, it’s easier to correct the documents for the children nowadays, but the biggest problem is when the parents’ names are incorrect. If the guardians’ names are wrong, it affects the children too. One often keeps on fixing these things throughout their lifetime.”

Jopona: “If the parents’ documents are wrong, then the children’s will also be wrong. The problem will continue intergenerationally.”

Purnima: “There still exists a family here without Aadhaar cards, despite spending so much money on the process. They had to go back to Bihar to get it done.”

Given such conditioning, these discrepancies in documents are exacerbated by the recent push towards linking every document under new digitalisation initiatives, where any discrepancy, even a minor one, can cause significant anxiety among the already marginalised communities.

In such remote environments, it is necessary to map out the economies underlying correction of documentation discrepancies and allocate services closer to these underserved communities, which reduces the need for expensive and time-consuming travel to distant government offices with an uncertainty of results.

Despite numerous interventions, many studies suggest how these tea garden workers still face persistent socio-economic challenges, including gender discrimination, low wages, inadequate living and working conditions, and limited opportunities for upward mobility.

The lack of access to accurate information, digital platforms, and state welfare schemes further aggravates these issues.

While civil society organisations working at the grassroots and programs like SoochnaPreneur have helped navigate challenges related to information poverty, documentation discrepancies and corrupt actions through various participatory approaches with the communities, the government mechanisms need to step up as well.

*All names changed to protect the identities of the workers

Dhiraj Singha works at the Research and Advocacy Division, Digital Empowerment Foundation.

A Shift to Less Water-Intensive Crops May be the Key to Protecting Farmer Lives

According to a study, while farm subsidies may be contributing to groundwater depletion, MSP itself is not the villain here.

Bengaluru: With water-intensive crops being grown in water-stressed and scarce areas, subsidies offered by governments to farmers for buying crops at more than the market prices may have caused substantial declines in water tables in India, according to a recent publication in the journal Nature Communications by researchers from John Hopkins, Cornell and Stanford Universities.

However, farmer well-being and the environment need not necessarily be at odds with each other. Experts told The Wire that minimum support price (MSP) itself is not the villain here: it just needs to be re-thought creatively enough in a way that will provide price stability to farmers, and not only support farmer incomes but also increase them while ensuring sustainability at the same time.

Some ways to do that would be to bring in additional subsidies for crop diversification, and to promote more high-value crops and agricultural practices.

According to the publication’s analysis, subsidies to farmers have contributed to as much as a 30% over-production of water intensive crops like rice and wheat. For instance, in Punjab, the procurement of rice may have potentially accounted for at least 50% reduction in the groundwater table in the past 34 years.

Similarly, since the 2000s, the wheat procurement in Madhya Pradesh might have caused an increase in dry wells by 5.3 percentage points (pp) and consequently 3.4 pp in the usage of deep tubewells.

Also read: Amid Demand for MSP Guarantee, What Can Actually Protect Farmer Lives?

Deepratan Singh Khara, assistant professor of economics, Sri Guru Gobind Singh College, Chandigarh, says, “The study highlights the significant impact of output subsidies, such as guaranteed crop procurement, on groundwater depletion, particularly for water-intensive crops like rice in Punjab and wheat in Madhya Pradesh.”

Khara wasn’t involved in the study but has researched on groundwater irrigation in Punjab and Haryana.

“It underscores the need to reform the existing subsidy framework to ensure both food security and the sustainable improvement of farmers’ livelihoods,” he says and adds, “The prolonged practice of unlimited procurement at the minimum support price (MSP) has played a substantial role in the decline of water tables, calling for a re-evaluation of these policies to prevent further environmental degradation.”

However, MSP itself isn’t a bad concept, says Avinash Kishore, senior research fellow based in the Delhi office of the International Food Policy Research Institute. The problem, according to him, is rice being procured from Punjab, Haryana and even Telangana – states that are water-scarce.

“These are not the regions where rice should be grown,” he says. “So the focus should shift to procurement from water-rich states like Odhisha and Chattisgarh.”

Governments – central and state – and agencies like the Food Corporation of India lean heavily on Punjab and Haryana as they produce a surplus – considering they are dominantly wheat-eating states – compared to eastern states.

“So, rice is a cash crop that is sold by these states,” says Kishore.

Also read: Punjab: 111 Farmers Join Jagjit Singh Dallewal in Indefinite Hunger Strike For MSP Guarantee

He thinks to keep the MSP going, procurement should be strengthened from the eastern states, thus, reducing dependence on crops from water-scarce areas. The failure to do so is not only the Union government’s accountability but also of the respective governments of the eastern states.

While there has been research on the impact of input subsidies like free electricity, there is limited understanding of the impact of output subsidies on usage of water locally.

This is because of the subtle nature of output subsidies indirectly determining cropping decisions, in turn impacting groundwater.

On the other hand, electricity subsidies directly enable usage of pumps to extract groundwater. By collating data since 1981 from different sources, this study contributes to our understanding of erosion of India’s groundwater by quantifying the role of output subsidy policy.

“Most, if not all subsidies, are well intentioned. But the externalities they have come to impose on the environment have broadly been ignored in policy design,” according to the joint response by the authors of the study.

“It provides new quantitative evidence of the way in which subsidies in the agricultural sector, specifically output subsidies via MSP, influence a resource that is critical to it,” they say.

To arrive at the quantitative evidence, the study compiled many district level datasets of crop production, area and irrigation. They also considered procurement of rice and wheat by the central and state agencies, levels and stress of groundwater and district level tubewell construction.

District-level weather and precipitation data for the cropping season was also constructed by the study.

Defunct and dry wells were used as two additional metrics of groundwater stress in addition to the district level average groundwater level data. This is because they give a better understanding of groundwater stress across different regions due to differences in aquifer types.

In Punjab, where groundwater levels persist and adjust gradually due the deep alluvial aquifers, groundwater depth is considered as a measure of stress. Hard rock and mixed systems deplete and replete annually in Madhya Pradesh.

To assess groundwater stress, the study maps changes in groundwater levels over shorter horizons by considering occurrence of dry wells and tube well construction.

The study finds active wells become defunct by a 6.37 percentage point across Indian districts and a 50% increase in tubewell construction with the increase in the rate of growth in area under rice cultivation between 1996-2015.

In Punjab, between 1973 to 2016, the average groundwater depth increased from 4.82 metres below ground level (mbgl) to 14.55 mbgl. By 1973, 78.6% of all dug wells that were active had become defunct. The study finds the main factor for this depletion is the adoption of high-yielding rice and wheat varieties during the Green Revolution of the 1960s.

Local wheat, cotton, maize and oilseeds gave way to the high-yielding ones, which required more intensive irrigation. This came from dug and tubewells, causing groundwater depletion.

MSP for rice and wheat, the assured government procurement, incentivised by cultivation of the high-yielding varieties even as there was surplus of these crops, underlined the groundwater depletion.

Also read: An Increase in MSP Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Fair Price for Farmers

Kishore advises doing away with free electricity. He points to a couple of pilot experiments being carried out in Pondicherry and Gujarat. In these, the farmers are paid an X amount according to the size of their land and the electricity they need to irrigate the crops. The payment is an alternative to the subsidy.

The only difference being that the farmers are charged for every additional unit of electricity they use. This makes the farmer think of electricity as a cost, which if they didn’t use would be savings.

“Farmers still don’t trust these experiments yet but something needs to be done,” he says.

In Madhya Pradesh, the government agencies didn’t procure either wheat or rice, historically. But from 2008, a bonus on top of national MSP was announced by the state government, and procurement of wheat was significantly increased.

Between 2007 and 2016, the state saw a 70% increase in wheat procurement (from 0.057 to 4 million tons). Growth in wheat-cultivated areas between 2000-2008 is partly attributed to improved irrigation systems. But the procurement started to add to the irrigation demand.

For instance, in Punjab, this was met by dug and tubewells, rather than surface water.

Doubling of the wheat post 2008 caused a 3.9 pp rise in depth of groundwater level and a 7.6 pp increase in occurrence of dry wells.

“For Punjab we find that rice procurement can account for about 50% of the total groundwater decline in the last three decades,” say the researchers.

“In Madhya Pradesh, that overlays different types of aquifers and where procurement started much later in 2007, groundwater stress has started to manifest in different ways. The policy has led to an increase in the number of wells becoming dry or defunct, and the need for deep tubewells to draw water within 8 years of the start of wheat procurement,” they add.

Khara considers this study to be a novel approach by quantifying the specific impact of output subsidies on groundwater depletion across various regions of India.

“Beyond relying on average groundwater level data, it introduces more comprehensive measures of groundwater stress, such as the percentage of defunct wells and dry wells, which provide a more robust and accurate assessment of the effects of these subsidy policies,” he says.

“This multifaceted analysis enhances the understanding of how such policies contribute to environmental stress.”

While the objective of most farm policies is to provide price stability and support to farmer incomes, as results of this study suggest, they can often lead to unintended consequences, counterproductive to the policy’s original goal.

One of the ways to counter this, according to Kishore, would be to introduce crop diversification.

Besides the environment, this would also help the farmers in increasing their incomes. Kishore said that there should be incentives for cultivating higher value agriculture practices like livestock, fruits and vegetables, fisheries and horticulture.

“Even current cropping patterns dominated by rice and wheat, if you look at the GDP, milk is more profitable than rice and wheat, and maybe even pulses combined in terms of valve,” he says. This is easier said than done.

But by investing in crop research, changing cropping patterns that reduce climate risks, production risks, and at the same time creating financial instruments and support systems, farmers could be encouraged to think of alternatives.

“These things require investment and new imagination,” says Kishore. “The subsidy sucks everything away and there is very little left to invest.”

Vrushal Pendharkar is an independent journalist covering the environment.

This study was published in Nature Communications on 5 October.

Punjab: 111 Farmers Join Jagjit Singh Dallewal in Indefinite Hunger Strike For MSP Guarantee

The 111 farmers belong to Dallewal’s SKM (non-political) forum, which has been leading the current farmers’ protests for close to a year now.

Chandigarh: Intensifying protests to press for a legal guarantee for minimum support price or MSP for crops, 111 farmers today (January 15) began a hunger strike for an indefinite period to support farmers’ leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, whose hunger strike has entered the 51st day.

Their protest began at Punjab-Haryana border in Khanauri, not far from where Haryana state’s border begins.

Haryana’s security forces were on high alert as the protesting farmers came close to the border. However, no confrontation took place and farmers have sat at the protest site peacefully.

Talking to the media, farmers made it clear that they would not march ahead and planned to execute their hunger strike at the site indefinitely until the Union government pays heed to their demand.

They added that they were ready to sacrifice their lives for the cause of farmers’ welfare, like Dallewal, who has so far refused any medical aid despite his health worsening amidst the fast.

Farmers on an indefinite hunger strike on the Khanauri border. Photo: By arrangement.

The 111 farmers, who wore black today, have also announced that they will not to take any medical help during the course of their hunger strike.

The 111 farmers belong to Dallewal’s SKM (non-political) forum, which has been leading the current farmers’ protests for close to a year now. The Sarwan Pandher-led Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) has also been in the forefront of these protests.

SKM (non-political) leader Lakhwinder Aulakh told The Wire that among protesters are farmers from 25 to 85 years of age. “Our leader Dallewal’s health continues to deteriorate, yet the centre is silent and not ready to engage in talks. Now more farmers have decided to put their lives at risk just like Dallewal,” he said.

Another forum leader Kaka Singh told reporters at the protest site that Haryana police officials told them that Section 163 of the BNSS (formerly 144 of the CrPC) had been imposed. “But we told them the farmers were not heading to Delhi and they would only be sitting on hunger strike,” Singh said.

“The administration is free to use force. They can lob tear-gas shells or lathicharge protesting farmers. But they will hold their protest peacefully in support of Dallewal,” he added.

Farmers on an indefinite hunger strike on the Khanauri border. Photo: By arrangement.

Early in the day, farmers cleaned the area and sat in ardas (prayer) before starting their protest. Aulakh said that all those participating today were also given a last minute opportunity to opt out before the start of the fast, but all chose to stay.

All eyes on January 18 joint forum meeting

Meanwhile, all eyes are on round two of the key meeting between various factions of the SKM on January 18 over the launch of a joint fight for farmers’ demands.

The first round of meetings on January 13 remained inconclusive but all forums were keen on forming a joint body to take on the Union government, on lines similar to the historic farmers’ protest in 2020-21.

SKM leaders, who successfully led the 2020 agitation against the now-repealed three farm laws, are not part of the current stir that has been going on at the Khanauri and Shambhu borders since February 13 last year.

Friction between various farm groups had led to a split in 2022. Dallewal formed his own front, the non-political SKM, and launched the current stir. But Dallewal’s protest had failed to move Punjab the way the 2020-2021 stir did.

Now, his deteriorating health and the Union government’s indifference has turned into a trigger for various forums to come together and plan a united fight.

Farmer Leaders to Forge Common Front After Farmer’s Death at Shambhu Border

Different factions of Samyukt Kisan Morcha decided to come together in Patiala on January 15 to end their differences and initiate a unified struggle against the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre.

Chandigarh: The possibility of a united farmers’ front leading the ongoing protest on the issue of legalising Minimum Support Price (MSP) and other issues is on the verge of becoming a reality.

Different factions of Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), which led the 2020-21 farmers’ protest on the borders of Delhi but later parted ways, decided to come together in Patiala on January 15 to end their differences and initiate a unified struggle against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre.

The development comes a day after a 50-year-old farmer from Tarn Taran, Resham Singh, died by consuming an insecticide at the farmers’ camping site at Shambhu border near Haryana’s Ambala district.

Nearly 30 farmers have reportedly died due to various reasons in the current protest that has been spearheaded by a SKM faction group, SKM (Non-Political), and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM), informed Guramnaeet Mangat, a protest leader.

Their protest will complete a year in February. But unlike the 2020-21 farmers’ protest that forced the BJP-led Centre to take back the contentious issue of three agriculture reform bills, the current protests failed to move beyond Punjab despite multiple attempts to pass through the Punjab-Haryana interstate borders.

One of the reasons is believed to be the lack of unity among farmer unions, which derailed their overall attempt to make the legal guarantee of MSP a national issue and subsequently take on the BJP government.

Unity on the cards now

Reviving their unity is on the cards now as a delegation of farmers led by SKM All India leaders, including Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) chief Joginder Singh Ugrahan, Dr Darshan Pal and Balbir Singh Rajewal, reached the Khanauri border to meet SKM (Non-Political) convener Jagjit Singh Dallewal here on Friday, January 10.

Dallewal was also a known SKM face during the 2020-21 farmers’ protest. But once the protest got over, differences arose among its leaders which made him part ways, form his own front and start the ongoing protest for legalising MSP in February last year with the support of Sarwan Singh Pandher-led KMM.

However, despite his best efforts and even putting his life at stake as he entered the 46th day of his hunger strike today, the Centre refused to pay any heed and engage in talks with Dallewal and other faction leaders.

Also read: Amid Demand for MSP Guarantee, What Can Actually Protect Farmer Lives?

It has now turned into a flashpoint, with a call for collective action to counter the Central government’s alleged “anti-farmer” policies.

It began with SKM All India leaders passing the “Ekta Resolution” during their Mahapanchayat at Punjab’s Moga on Thursday, January 9, emphasising the need for unity among various unions to press for their long-standing demands. As a result of this resolution, the SKM delegation met Dallewal and decided to continue their talks on January 15 to revive their united front.

After meeting with Dallewal, SKM leader Balbir Rajewal told the media that the unions might have differences and different approaches but their target is the same, which is to take on the anti-farmer policies of the BJP-led Centre. On the other hand, SKM (Non-Political) leader Kaka Singh Kotra told the media that the government taunted the disunity of the farmer unions recently.

“Today, we have busted that myth being circulated by the government and proceeded towards forming a unified struggle that we had initiated during the Delhi protest. I hope the unions affiliated with SKM All India will join the Morcha at the Shambhu and Khanauri borders,” Kotra said.

What to expect in the meeting?

On January 15, the coordination committee of all stakeholders, including SKM All India, SKM (Non-Political) and KMM, will meet to form a common minimum programme and initiate a unified struggle against the BJP government at the Centre.

While legal guarantee to MSP is likely to be a central issue of their programme, other likely issues include rejection of an unfavourable draft national policy on agriculture marketing recently issued by the Union government.

Besides, debt relief for farmers and labourers may also feature in their joint programme. The farmer unions from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and other states may also join the protest if a forum is created for farmers, as anticipated by several farmer leaders.