At the protest march held by women to mark Women Farmers’ Day, Monday. (Photo: Pem Nath Pandey) From manning the stage, guarding the entry with sticks to coordinating the day’s events, women took the lead at the Singhu border protest on Monday to mark Women Farmers’ Day.
By morning, several women arrived from Punjab’s Amritsar, Mohali and Khanna and got down to business — an all-women crew handled the backside of the main stage area while another group of women managed the events on stage.
An all-women local theatre group performed a skit on the government and farm laws. Speeches for the day were made only by women, who talked about their role and importance in these protests. Every hour, women belonging to different outfits also took out marches along the line of tractor trolleys at the site.
The event comes in the backdrop of the Supreme Court observing that women and children should not be protesting at the borders.
“We are very much a part of the protests, there is no question of going back. We come from the land of Bhagat Singh and know about sacrifices. I too have assisted in farming since mine is an agrarian family. We are in support of the struggle and consider ourselves an integral part of it. We can stay for as long it takes,” said Harinder Bindu, president, women’s wing of BKU Ugrahan.
According to the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha, Women Farmers’ Day was celebrated across the country. In Madhya Pradesh’s Barwani and Khargone, women farmers took out a huge rally. In Maharashtra’s Nandurbar district also, women farmers took out a rally with bullock carts while Rajasthan saw a tractor rally led by women-driven tractors, unions said.
In Haryana’s Mahendragarh district and UP’s Jaunpur, mass meetings of women farmers were organised. A Mahila Kisan Parishad was organised in Pune and a Mahila Kisan Sansad in Kolkata on the occasion, the morcha said.