Int’l report puts farmers’ movement under global scanner

Bathinda: The global civil society alliance, Civicus has released its annual “State of civil society report 2021,” describing the people’s mobilisations that swept Asia despite the Covid pandemic. The report mentions protests in Thailand, Myanmar and India - where the farmers’ movement has been mentioned under the head, “Farmers make their voices heard.”
The report mentions people in Asian nations taking to the streets demanding democratic and economic rights and condemning authoritarian regimes cracking down on civic freedoms.
It also delves into the farmers’ struggle saying the collective action and large coordinated strike forced the central government to negotiate on agricultural reform laws. The report also looks into how the protest at the borders of Delhi was heard in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Singapore and other countries.
“In times where steam rolling of laws without adequate public consultation was coupled with routine suppression of dissent, massive farmers’ protests came to occupy an important space for people to stand up against executive overreach and find common cause to come together to be heard,” claimed New York-based Mandeep Tiwana, one of the authors of the report. Tiwana is chief programme officer at Civicus.
He said initially, the government dismissed farmers’ concerns as misplaced but as a large number of people rallied around the protesters, the government was forced to the negotiating table.