Purusottam Thakur

Sharmila Joshi

Text Editor

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“People used to say ‘Jai Jawan, Jai
Kisan’, and the government might be taking care of the jawans but
the kisan are a neglected lot,” says
Pappu Kumar Rathore, 36, a disabled vendor at the sabzi mandi (vegetable market) in
the Kishanganj area of north Delhi. “Farmers are not getting back what they
are investing in agriculture. It’s no more a profitable occupation, that is why
many are leaving agriculture.” 

“There is no certainty in farming
due to fluctuating rates,” he adds. “We meet farmers in the mandi,
and I know many farmers who are now working as labourers. The government should
address their issues because they are our anna
daata [providers of food].”

Also at the mandi, Radheshyam Rathore, a
vegetable vendor from Karauli
in Rajasthan, says, “Ours was a farm family. If farming had been good,
my father would not have come to Delhi. Now we three brothers are here in this
vegetables business.” 

Next to him, Omprakash Raiswal, 57,
from a Dalit community, an onion and
potato vendor, says, “We were also farmers but our ancestral
land was reduced to a small patch after it was divided among my father’s brothers.
So some 20 years ago my father migrated from Kolana village [in Dausa district of Rajasthan] to Delhi
with our family to earn a livelihood. That is why we are here. Now farmers don’t get the price, the middlemen take the profit. Farmers are struggling to survive.&quot;

'We were also farmers...'

আমিও কৃষকেই আছিলোঁ...

‘நாங்களும் விவசாயிகள்தான்…’

ଆମେମାନେ ବି ଚାଷୀ

‘আমরাও কৃষক ছিলাম...’

‘हम भी किसान थे...’

’ہم بھی کسان تھے...‘

Delhi

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'We were also farmers...'

At a vegetable market in North Delhi, a day before the farmers' march, vendors speak of the agrarian crisis

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