Press Release

The All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), a platform of more than 250 farmer organisations, at its national convention in Delhi on 29–30 November 2019 gave a call for a Grameen Bharat Bandh on January 8, 2020, to protest the anti-farmer policies being adopted by governments.

Demands of Farmers

We call upon the Parliament of India to immediately hold a Special Session to pass and enact the two Kisan Mukti Bills that are of, by and for the farmers of India namely,

1. The Farmers’ Freedom from Indebtedness Bill, 2018; and
2. The Farmers’ Right to Guaranteed Remunerative Minimum Support Prices for Agricultural Commodities Bill, 2018

and to hold a special discussion on the grave and unprecedented agrarian crisis in our country and its related aspects.

and demand that the Government of India must immediately:

3. Increase the number of guaranteed employment days under MGNREGS to 200 days per family, ensure wage payment at par with legal minimum wages for unskilled farm labour, and ensure that all pending payments are made immediately;
4. Reduce the cost of inputs including seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, water, diesel and electricity for farmers;
5. Provide universal comprehensive social security for all farm households including pension of at least Rs. 5,000 per month per farmer above the age of 60 and health coverage;
6. Universalise the Public Distribution System with providing cereals, pulses, oils and sugar and stop its linkage with Aadhaar and the biometric system;
7. Address the menace of stray animals by removing all legal and vigilante-imposed restrictions on cattle trade;
8. Stop land acquisition without informed consent, Social and Environment Impact Assessment, acquisition of agricultural land for commercial land development and Stop bypassing or diluting The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 at all levels including by state governments;
9. Make payment of cane dues mandatory within 15 days of opening of the mill, maintain recovery rate at 9.5%; and introduce SAP for cane throughout the country;
10. Withdraw pesticides that have been banned elsewhere and not approve GM seeds without a comprehensive needs, alternatives and impact assessment;
11. Disallow Foreign Investment in seeds, agriculture and foods processing.
12. Stop uprooting Adivasi farmers in the name of big dams, mining, SEZs, afforestation, ensure strict implementation of Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, and prevent dilution of Forests Rights Act 2006 and ensure its stringent implementation all over the country.
13. Provide land and livelihood rights to the landless, including on agricultural land and in water for fishing, mining of minor minerals etc.;
14. Implement a comprehensive crop insurance scheme to cover all types of risks for all crops and for all farmers, with farm as the unit of damage assessment; ensure benefit to farmers and not corporate insurance companies;
15. Build assured protective irrigation through sustainable means for farmers, especially in the rainfed areas;
16. Ensure remunerative guaranteed prices for milk;
17. Waive off all outstanding agricultural loans of farmers from suicide affected families and provide special opportunities to women and children of such families;
18. Protect farmers from corporate plunder in the name of contract farming;
19. Invest in farmers’ collectives to create Farmer Producer Organisations and Peasant Cooperatives instead of corporatisation of agriculture and takeover by MNCs; and
20. Promote an agro-ecology paradigm that is based on suitable cropping patterns and local seed diversity revival, so as to build economic viability, ecologically sustainable, autonomous and climate resilient agriculture.