Since 2017, farmers, both men and women, have taken to the streets in a sort of last stand, to make their voices heard. The country has been apathetic to their plight since decades, but this time people couldn’t but stop and take notice. Be it the bleeding feet of marching farmers, or their long struggles for a decent income, their voices seem to have been heard. However, for the first time perhaps, women farmers spoke up at separate meetings, part of the many in the country, on their troubles and demands related to farming.
The tragic stories
Married at 15, Reshma Sawant led a life of itinerant daily wage labour in the district of Beed, Maharashtra. In 2016, her husband Balu committed suicide after a failed attempt at setting up a hotel and borrowing money, which he couldn’t repay. Now Reshma lives with her brother- in- law, has no home to call her own, and looks after her young daughter with her meagre earnings. Even though her father-in-law owned five acres – he left it to another son, and neither Balu nor his wife were given a share in the land.
The stories of Reshma and other women who barely survive on daily wages, with very little help from anyone, have been documented by the Mahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch (MAKAAM) in a booklet titled “Vanwa” released in November 2018. MAKAAM has been working with women farmers at a national level since 2014, and has been demanding recognition of their status and land rights to them. In September and October, 2018, the organisation conducted a survey of 505 women whose husbands had committed suicide in 11 districts of Vidarbha and Marathwada, and the findings released last year indicated that 29 per cent of them were not able to get land in their name. After the death of their husbands, 43 per cent of the women didn’t have a house in their name either.
In Mumbai, the women from Marathwada and Vidarbha, mobilised by MAKAAM held a symbolic protest and a condolence meeting in November 2018, as well. They mourned their loved ones and spoke at length about their plight as widows. Nilima from Wardha had to fight a long battle to get a little of her husband’s share of land transferred to her name. He committed suicide in 2015. The land he tilled belonged to his father. Still, she continues to have no support from her in- laws and when she tried to share the electricity, they cut the power line. Most of the time she lives in darkness. “There should be some help – though I get Rs 600 as widow’s pension. Why can’t we get a smart card for free health care as dryland farming is not getting me any money?”, asks Nilima.
On the other hand, the women were also happy that they were able to speak up and communicate their problems to the authorities. In an earlier meeting, women farmers like Manda appealed to the Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to stop the bank from cutting her husband’s debt from her compensation. “I got courage from speaking up, and I want other women to speak up and live in dignity”, she said.
Less access to government schemes
Most women end up as daily wage labourers and struggle to make ends meet, with no land in their name or even a house. They have very little social or economic support, and mainly the education and sustenance of children is a big worry. The survey found that 33 per cent of the women had not submitted the application for the pension scheme, and while 26 per cent had filled in the forms, their pension was not approved. Only 34 per cent received regular pension. Of the women surveyed, only 52 per cent had ration cards in their names.
Not many children availed of fee concessions – only 12 per cent – and only 24 per cent received any material help in the form of books, uniforms or stationary. The main stumbling block is the government rules on deciding if a suicide was eligible for the Rs one lakh compensation or not. A government committee assesses crop failure, land ownership and institutional credit, among other criteria, and then decides. While most of the credit comes from informal sources, and lands are not in the name of the people who are tilling them, the question of compensation become fraught with uncertainty for the surviving families. After a death, families run around in a welter of red tape for their entitlements. Some of the women in the survey were not aware of the government’s health scheme, the Mahatma Phule Jevandayi Arogya Yojana, and some had to bribe officials to get the benefits.
Even the Prerana mental health scheme was not known to more than 15 per cent of those surveyed. This scheme was launched in 2015 to identify farmers in need of counselling, after which they can go to designated government hospitals for help. From 2015 onwards, 137 households had mental health patients, but 83 didn’t go for treatment. About 23 patients went to government hospitals and many of them ended up paying for treatment.
In New Delhi too, women farmers held a Kisan Mukti Sansad or a mock Parliament with social activist Medha Patkar as speaker for a day, in November 2017. The stories of the women highlighted the agrarian distress in India, a fact that government has wilfully ignored despite over 300,000 farm suicides from 1995 to 2015 – when the last recorded data was made public.
Kavitha, from Telangana, whose husband committed suicide after repeated loss of cotton crop, blamed the government. Both the parents of Manisha from Siddipet in Telangana committed suicide as they couldn’t repay loans at high interest from money lenders, who harassed them for repayment. “We have come to Delhi wanting to know from the Prime Minister who will help us, if he does not?” she said.
Farmers demanded a reduction in the cost of inputs – especially seeds, fertilisers, water and power, a comprehensive social security scheme, in a massive list of demands to the Centre. While the government recognises and strives to promote women in the private and corporate sector, women in the marginal and unorganised sector are floundering on their own. After the MAKAAM survey, women demanded increase in ex- gratia payment, doubling of widow’s pension, free education for children, ration cards, and land rights to be transferred to the women’s name, apart from a helpline in all suicide prone districts.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, Rs 6,000 per annum has been announced for marginal farmers, in the recent interim budget, but such schemes are sure to bypass most women farmers since they don’t have the land in their name. Instead of sops, it is time the government engaged constructively with the issue of land rights to women farmers, and provided support to survivors of farm suicides.
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Meena Menon
Meena Menon is former deputy editor The Hindu. She is an now an independent journalist and author of Reporting Pakistan, Riots and After in Mumbai, A Frayed History: The Journey of Cotton in India (coauthored with Uzramma), Organic Cotton Reinventing the Wheel and On the Trail of the Girl Child (co-authored with Sharmila Joshi).[/column]