New Delhi: In the election time, the farmers have also come out with their own ‘Manifesto for Freedom’ for the political parties to adopt it for resolving the agrarian crisis.
“This is a framework that could potentially unite farmers and India,” says the manifesto inspired by visionary farmer leader Sharad Joshi who passed away in 2015 and drafted by farmers, activists and academics. The thrust of this Farmers’ Manifesto for Freedom is that our farmers have been increasingly stifled by laws and regulations. India cannot progress and prosper so long as its farmers are denied the freedom to grow.
Agriculture is India’s largest private sector. Yet, despite the initiation of economic liberalisation in 1991, agriculture has been largely ignored. There has been almost no recognition of the need to improve the “doing business” environment of the farmers.
Four elements of freedom stressed in the manifesto are: ‘Why: Enslaved by laws, nyaybandi; What: Unlock the wealth of assets, dhan mukti; How: Limit the state by returning public assets to the people, dhan vapsi; and Who: We the people, the sovereign citizen of India.
Nyaybandi calls for dismantling the maze of laws and regulations that have chained the farmers to poverty. Dhan mukti is to stress that the farmers are poor since they are prevented from capitalising whatever assets they may possess to invest in better productivity and growth.
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Dhan vapsi is not to waive the farm loans but returning to the farmer the assets the government has extracted over the years in the form of land, natural resources, etc to establish undue control over the farmers’ property rights, curbing their freedom and perpetuating injustice The manifesto says that even after seven decades of independence from the British colonial rule, the farmers, who constitute the largest section of population, remain chained by laws and regulations.
“Farmers are impoverished by the sustained assault on their Property Rights, much more than any other sections of society.
“Farm produce is the property of farmers’ labour, but devalued by innumerable restrictions on trade and limited access to market, thus policies and politics have colluded to deliberately depress farm income.
“Technology has an increasing role in improving productivity and income, while lowering environmental stress, yet access to technologies are either restricted or prohibited, undermining farmers’ potential to grow crops while putting a greater stress on environment.
At times, this has forced farmers to seek new technologies surreptitiously with attendant risks,” the manifest said. The manifesto underlines that the Indian agriculture is the largest private sector but the farmers are chained to poverty by legal and regulatory restrictions, diminishing their freedom and prosperity.
