देश के 210 किसान और खेतिहर मजदूर संगठनों ने 29-30 नवंबर 2018 को संसद
के समक्ष व्यापक जुटान की अपील की है। इस बार का जुटान कोई मामूली जुटान नहीं
है इस बार देश भर से लाखों किसान और खेतिहर मजदूर खेती- किसानी पर गहराते संकट
के सवाल पर संसद के 21 दिन के विशेष सत्र की माँग को ले कर इकट्ठा हो रहे हैं।
इस घटना पर पूर्वी भारत के लोगों को विशेष ध्यान देने की जरूरत है।
जैसा कि पिछले कुछ सालों में हमने देखा है कि पश्चिम, उत्तर और दक्षिण भारत के किसानों तथा खेतिहर मजदूरों की समस्या का ज़िक्र, मीडिया तथा केंद्र सरकार गाहे-ब-गाहे करती रहती हैं। मगर पूर्वी भारत के राज्य मसलन बिहार,झारखंड, पश्चिम बंगाल, छत्तीसगढ़, ओडिशा, और पूर्वी उत्तरप्रदेश के किसानों की समस्या को पुछने वाला कोई नहीं दिखता। गौरतलब है कि 1950 के दशक तक पूर्वी भारत,देश के सबसे समृद्ध क्षेत्रों मे सुमार था। यहाँ की मिट्टी की उर्वरा-शक्ति को समझने के लिये इतना ही काफी है कि यहाँ 644 किलो अनाज प्रति हेक्टेयर तक उपजता था। मगर हरित क्रांति के आगमन के साथ ही यह अग्रणी स्थिति खोती चली गयी। हरित क्रांति के कारण पूर्वी भारत में कृषि, किसान और खेतिहर मजदूरों की स्थिति मे गहरा धक्का पहुँचा।
यह ध्यान देने योग्य बात है कि समूचा देश साथ साथ पूर्वी भारत के किसान और खेतिहर मजदूर भी खेती किसानी के अभूतपूर्व संकट के दौर से गुजर रहे हैं। सामान्य किसानो की असामान्य पैदल यात्रा ने मुंबई के आम लोगों के दिल पर ऐसा असर डाला कि वे स्वत: ही इस आंदोलन मे शामिल हो गए।
यह हमारे लिए विमर्श का विषय है कि हम किसानों के इन संघर्षों से प्रेरणा लेते हुए कैसे किसानों के साथ एक व्यापक लोकतांत्रिक मंच का निर्माण कर सकते हैं। किसानी की समस्या के ऊपर संभावित निदान हेतू नेशन फॉर फार्मर तथा बिहार के सामाजिक संगठन आपको 23 नवंबर को आयोजित सभा मे सादर आमंत्रित करते हैं। हम इस सभा मे किसानों और खेतिहर मजदूरों के 21 दिनों के संसद के विशेष सत्र की मांग पर विस्तृत चर्चा करेंगे।
इस बैठक का मूल उद्देश्य पूर्वी भारत मे किसानों तथा खेतिहर मजदूरों की आवाज को बुलंद करना है। इस सभा को नेशन फॉर फार्मर (किसानों के साथ देश समूह) अपने बिहार के किसान संगठनों तथा गैर किसान संगठनों जैसे तत्पर फाउंडेशन, सनमत, इंडियन सोसाईटी फॉर कल्चरल कॉपरेशन, जन आंदोलनों का राष्ट्रीय समन्वय, समग्र शिक्षण एवं विकास संस्थान, केदार दास इंस्टीट्यूट फॉर लेबर एंड सोशल स्टडी, बिहार महिला समाज और भारतीय जन नाट्य संघ द्वारा आयोजित किया गया है।
स्थान: गांधी संग्रहालय, गांधी मैदान, पटना
समय : 10:00 am to 1.00 pm
प्रमुख वक्ता: पी साई नाथ, संस्थापक संपादक पीपुल्स अरकाईव ऑफ रूरल
इंडिया (PARI) एवं ग्रामीण मामलों के पूर्व संपादक, द हिन्दू
यह एक जरूरी मौका है कि हम सब विविध क्षेत्र के कर्मचारियों, डॉक्टरों, वकीलों, पत्रकारों, कलाकारों, वैज्ञानिकों, इंजीनियरों, शिक्षकों, छात्रों, महिलाओं, युवाओं और कई लोगों का प्रतिनिधित्व करने वाले संगठनों के सहयोग और भागीदारी के समन्वय को स्थापित कर सकें।
अगर आप आमंत्रण स्वीकार कर आने की पुष्टि करेंगे तो हम आपके आभारी रहेंगे
सादर
गोपाल कृष्ण
किसानों के साथ देश समूह (Nation for Farmers)
और
गैर किसान संगठन व सामाजिक संगठन
For further Details:
Gopal Krishna, Nation for Farmers (9818089660), Ravindra Nath Roy,
ISCUF (7633861757), Amit Kumar, Tatpar Foundation (09835893121)
Ujjawal NAPM (9532326737)
†*****************************
Note: Why farmers and farm workers are demanding a 21 day soecial session of Parlianent. P Sainath will also speak in the meeting. Concept Note regarding the meeting is attached.
Dear friends & comrades,
Over 210 farmer and agricultural worker organisations of the country have given a call for a march to Parliament on 29-30 November 2018. They are demanding a 21- day special session of Parliament to deliberate on remedial measures for safeguarding the interest of farm, farmers and agricultural workers. The Eastern region merits special attention during the special session of the Parliament.
While crisis of farmers and agricultural workers in Western, Southern and Northern India has received some attention in the media and central legislature, the plight of those in the Eastern region of the country
(Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Eastern UP) has remained on the margins. Eastern India was the most prosperous region in the country till the 1950s, maintaining a lead over the other regions with highest food grain yield of 644 kg/ha. It lost its leading position with the advent of the Green Revolution. This revolution seems to have structurally undermined farming, farmers and farm workers in this region.
The fact remains that the farmers and farm workers of this region and rest of India constitute a community of fate.
What are the concrete ways in which we can extend our support and solidarity to the lakhs who will march into Delhi during Nov. 29-30?
How do we best meet this upcoming historic moment? We have before us the example of farmers' march from Nashik to Mumbai during March 2018.
Can we learn from and build on this for the much larger democratic protest the farmer organisations have called for? And how?
In order to dwell on possible actions to respond to farm issues, you are cordially invited to come to a meeting on “Why are farmers & farm workers demanding 21-day special session of Parliament” co-organised by Nation for Farmers which is a collective formed by non-farmers to support over 210 farmers' organisations, farmers and farm workers. It aims to amplify the voice of farmers and farm workers. Nation for Farmers is organizing this meeting in collaboration with its friends in Bihar’s non-farmer organizations like Tatpar Foundation, Sanmat, Indian Society for Cultural Co-operation & Friendship (ISCUF), National Alliance for People’s Movement (NAPM), Samagra Shikshan Evam Vikas Sansthan (SSEVS), Kedar Das Institute for Labour and Social Studies (KDILSS), Bihar Mahila Samaj & Indian Peoples Theatre Association (IPTA). Date and venue of the meeting is as under:
Date: November 23, 2018
Venue: Gandhi Sangrahalaya (Gandhi Museum), Gandhi Maidan, Patna
Time: 10:00 am to 1.00 pm
P Sainath, founder of People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) & former rural affairs editor of The Hindu will address the meeting.
Kindly join us to deliberate on how organisations representing workers, public & private sector employees, doctors, lawyers, journalists, artists, scientists, engineers, teachers, students, women, youth, and many, many
others can form an alliance to help build support for the proposed Kisan Mukti March during November 29-30, 2018.
We will highly appreciate a line of confirmation.
Warmly
Gopal Krishna Nation for Farmers
&
Bihar’s Non-farmer groups in solidarity with the Nation for Farmers
For further Details:
Gopal Krishna, Nation for Farmers (9818089660), Ravindra Nath Roy,
ISCUF (7633861757), Amit Kumar, Tatpar Foundation (09835893121)
Ujjawal NAPM (9532326737)
Concept Note
Why farmers and agricultural
workers are demanding
a 21 day-special session of
Parliament
The
Eastern region comprising of about 28% of the country's geographical area and
is inhabited by about 35% of the country's population. In Bihar, 91 percent of
all land holdings fall in the category of marginal holdings with farm size less
than 1 hectare. High cost of diesel-based irrigation (70 %) has made
agriculture difficult.
The credit availability per
hectare in Bihar, water logging and drainage problems remain predominant concerns. Bihar
possessed about 3% of the total cultivated area of the country and 8% of the
country’s population. The fact remains problems of farmers and agricultural
workers of Bihar and eastern India cannot be seen in isolation from the
problems of being faced by farmers and agricultural workers all over the
country.
The special
session of parliament is required to focus solely on the agrarian crisis &
related issues and the honouring of the recommendations made in the Reports of
the National Commission for Farmers, which have been lying for over 12 years in
Parliament without a day’s serious discussion. It is one of their major
demands. Meanwhile, agrarian and rural distress has been deepening daily
accompanied by massive loss of livelihoods. While successive
governments have failed and, indeed, consciously undermined the agrarian sector
for two decades now, the past few years have taken the damage to unprecedented
levels. The devastation of demonetisation and the assault on the cattle economy
are just two examples of the new dimensions of distress.
This
context creates a logical compulsion on those who belong to the professional
and other groups of the middle and lower-middle classes to support call of the
farmers and farm labourers readying for their massive protest.
1. In
a situation where over three lakh farmers have committed suicide in our country
in the last 20 years, agrarian crisis is no more about food security, farmers
and farm labourers alone. It has now become a crisis of the society and
civilization. It is these very farmers who saved the country from ship-to-mouth
existence to feed Indians without waiting for ships to arrive.
2. Now
that it has officially been admitted that between 1991 and 2011, the number of
farmers/cultivators declined by 1.5 crore as per census, it is quite clear that
the wages and salary of all including legislators have increased but freezing
of farm incomes has been marginalizing farming communities. Despite this 94 per
cent of the farmers’ have been kept out of the purview of income security.
3. As
a nation, fellow citizens cannot afford to remain mute spectators to the plight
of farming, farmers and farm labourers when indebtedness related consequences
compels them to end their life even as indebted commercial czars get bailed out
or get protected or run with impunity paving the way for return of the money
lenders who create yet another vicious circle of poor being poor because they
are poor. Shouldn’t indebted farmers need to be treated in the same way as
beneficial owners of indebted companies? Credit policy of the banking system
has adopted double standards. It waives off the defaulting amount of credit at
the earliest opportunity arguing that it leads to economic growth. It
restructures the loans of the beneficial owners of corporate sector but
penalizes the farmers. In such a scenario, waiving of farm loan too can lead to
such growth. If waiving loans is a moral hazard than it is so for both the
corporate and farm sector.
4. Land
and water co-exist but their commodification, corporatization and acquisition
is undermining farming as source of livelihood. The conversion of agricultural
land into non-agricultural land across the country is happening without
cumulative impact assessment in a business as usual scenario. Ongoing
corporatization of water and promotion of cash crops have turned rivers and
ground water aquifers into monetizing machines. Such an approach has prevented
rivers and other water sources to perform their geological and ecological
functions. One of the core natural functions of rivers is land building. Amidst
shrinking of land under agriculture, anonymous donors of political parties,
real estate operators and development fundamentalists have stopped the river
from performing their natural work.
5. Collapse
of agriculture has created problems of unemployment, increased informalisation
of workers, indebtedness and devastation of cattle economy has made
agricultural mode of livelihood precarious. Amidst indefensible inequality and
technological unemployment driven mass poverty, the well being of fellow citizens
cannot be divorced from the well being of farmers and farm labourers.
6. Given
the fact that an unjust structural arrangement has ensured that market remains
consistently against farmers, it has emerged that fall in the prices in the
open market of farm produce despite there being a bountiful harvest is a bigger
calamity than continuing drought, heavy rainfall or any other natural disaster.
So much so that farming is no more about farming crops but it about cultivating
losses. There are situations where milk becomes cheaper than the water.
7. Rich
countries are providing 190 billion dollar product specific subsidy but are
coercing India through anonymous donations to ruling political parties to cut
the subsidy although investing in agriculture is at least five times more
productive than infrastructure. In a demonstration of flawed priorities,
previous government built nearly 2.5 lakh panchayat houses unmindful of the
compelling need for rural godowns.
8. Farmers
and farm workers seem to have also been adversely affected by futures contracts
unleashed by financial speculators and investors. Such contracts in agricultural
commodity market entails formal obligation to sell or buy a given amount of
commodity at a specified time and price. Although only a miniscule of such
contracts actually result in the delivery of physical commodity as they are
traded before their expiration date, it is clear that they are structurally
inimical to the interest of farm, farmers and farm workers. In such
arrangements neither the primary producer nor the consumers benefit from
agricultural commodity future trading.
9. One
cannot remain callous towards unprecedented suffering of farmers and farm
workers due to law and policy driven dispossession, deprivation, misery and distress
migration. Although agriculture is the biggest employer in the country and has
the potential to rejuvenate country’s economy, existing policies and laws have
given it least priority in comparison to corporate sector.
10. Taking
lessons from the fellow citizens and residents of Mumbai who participated and
extended support to the farmers and farm workers during the weeklong Padyatra
of 40, 000 farmers and farm workers from Nashik to Mumbai in March 2018, there
is a compelling reason for fellow citizens and residents of Bihar to
participate in the long march of our farmers from all over the country
during 29- 30 November 2018 to Parliament in Delhi demanding 21 day special
session of parliament to deliberate and legislate on life threatening concerns
of the nation.
P
Sainath, founder of People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) & former rural
affairs editor of The Hindu will address the meeting.
Kindly join us to deliberate on how organisations
representing workers, public & private sector employees, doctors, lawyers,
journalists, artists, scientists, engineers, teachers, students, women, youth,
and many, many others can form an alliance to help build support for the
proposed Kisan Mukti March during November 29-30, 2018.
Organisers:
Nation
for Farmers | Tatpar Foundation | Indian Society for Cultural Co-operation & Friendship (ISCUF) |
Sanmat | Chintaharan Social Development Trust (CSDT) | National Alliance for People’s Movement (NAPM)
| Kedar Das Institute for Labour and Social Studies (KDILSS) | Bihar Mahila
Samaj | Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA)
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