MAG A Z INE NAM E| (WEBZ M A STER PAGE ) EMILY LE WIS INE CON TR IBU TION
HOW THE BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT IS PLEADING FOR A CRIMINAL LAW REVOLUTION
I N D I A’S FA R M I N G P R OT E ST S
MODI, MONEY AND MARKET DEREGUL ATION IN AUGUST 2020, THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT MADE PUBLIC THEIR NEWLY PROPOSED AGRICULTURAL REFORM BILLS. THESE WERE MET WITH ANGER FROM INDIAN FARMERS WHO HAVE BEEN PROTESTING PEACEFULLY SINCE THEN. ON JANUARY 26TH 2021, THESE PROTESTS TURNED VIOLENT, SUBSEQUENTLY GAINING MEDIA ATTENTION AND LEAVING MANY WOR-
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LDWIDE WONDERING; WHAT IS GOING ON IN INDIA?
n September 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi passed three agricultural reform bills through parliament at a record pace. These were the: Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill and The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill. These are otherwise respectively referred to as the APMC Bypass Bill, the Freedom of Food Stocking by Agribusiness Bill and the Contract Farming Bill. Together they dictate a significant shift in Indian agriculture towards rapid economic liberalisation. The significance of these new reforms is that the ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led
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by Modi, has delivered change—desired for years by farmers—to Indian agriculture. The critique, however, is that this has come in an unwanted, corrupt and dysfunctional form. Nor are these the kind of changes they were asking for. Out of India’s population of 1.39 billion, approximately 43% are employed in the agricultural sector according to the 2019 World Bank statistics. Despite this vast workforce, farming is less than 15% of India’s GDP, with the agriculture sector consisting of largely small farm units. The Indian Agricultural Census of 2015-2016 stated that smallholder and marginal farmers with less than two hectares of farming land make up 86.2% of all Indian farmers. December 2020, Punjabi farmer protesting. © Randeep Maddoke/Wikimedia Commons
