NEW DELHI: Farmers in India’s northern Punjab state demanding higher rates for their crops from the national government are relying on young students to ensure the agitation’s momentum does not fizzle out against the Narendra Modi-led Indian government.
18-year-old Simranjeet Singh Mathada is one of thousands of college students who have been waking up at 3:00 am for almost two weeks to help cook meals at community kitchens, load tractor trailers with supplies, and fill tankers with potable water before heading to the protest site some 200 km from the capital, New Delhi.
He said that the protests are now about safeguarding India’s agrarian economy, and farmers of Punjab are determined to bring this reform at all costs.
Protester demands are centered around guaranteed floor rates, which will allow millions of farmers to sell their produce at fixed prices.
Even as talks between the government and farmer unions have been underway, demonstrations have sometimes turned violent.
On several occasions, scores of farmers have suffered wounds trying to force their way through barbed wires and concrete blocks placed by police to prevent them from marching on the capital.
Some police officials were also wounded in these sporadic clashes.
Mathada said that their determination to bring about the change helps face the police every day.
Mathada and his father have been using a metal shield and swimming goggles to protect themselves from thick clouds of smoke and tear gas shells lobbed via drones by the police.
Before the demonstrations, Mathada helped his family cultivate crops on their ancestral land and manage a hardware shop.
For now, the main objective is to make sure the Narendra Modi government accepts our demands, he said, adding that attending lectures has become secondary for him and some of his classmates.
Indian Farmers’ Protests for Rights
The demonstrations come just months before polls in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party is seeking a third consecutive term.
