February 15, 2021 • 10 mins
Women of all ages have been playing a hugely significant role in India's Farmers' Protests. Anney and Samantha look into the role of women in these protests and as farmers in India.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Danny and Samantha. I'm welcome to stuff
I've never told your protection of I heart radio, said Samantha.
My question for you is do you have any experience
with farms? Farming? So I do have a little experience,
(00:28):
not a lot, because I haven't spoken many times before
how I kill plants um and purpose right, No, it
just inevitably happens because plants hate me. Been keeping my
basil alive. I'm fairly I'm fairly proud of that. Although
now my partner's taken over and is doing a better
job than I did, so whatever, not better. But you know,
(00:50):
I come from a small town that has a lot
of egg farms, chicken farms, and cow farms, and you
know your typical corn and all of I never necessarily
was raised on one, but because I was in proximity
with that, I would have friends who would have worked
on farms and stuff like that, and I would go
as well. And I've had a couple of summers of
(01:12):
experiences of that. I didn't like it. No, No, because
one of my jobs was cleaning off egg poop, chicken
poop off of eggs. I think I gagged the entire
time and I was not a fan. I was not
a fan, was not a fan. What about you? Yeah,
I feel like I'm in a similar vein I. I
think we've talked before about we both went to schools.
(01:32):
Were in high school. There was like program and you
would go and like the f f A. Yeah, I
was gonna say, do things with cows. That sounds so wrong,
you know, kind of have those experiences on farms and
almost like a tourist visiting. Some of my family members
have farms, and when I was a kid, I thought
(01:53):
it was really really cool, like to see the chickens
and the cows and um, one of my realiity has
had his horses. But I wasn't working on the farm.
So I feel like that's a different that's a different thing.
Like it was cool for me to see it and
all that land, you know. But even if like I
remember once I was like, yeah, I'll put me to work,
and then I was like, no, this is a lot
(02:14):
of work. Yeah, I will say after working just for
like a couple of summers, the amount of work, the
amount of like what it felt like backbreaking work, I
was like, yeah, man, kudos to whoever can do this.
And they're not getting paid enough. Like that was the
entirety of my conversation was like, no, whatever they're getting
paid is not enough. Totally agree. So we wanted to
(02:37):
put a time stamp on this one. It is February
ninth one because things do move really rapidly, and today
we're talking about the farmers protests in India and there
is a lot going on there. It's continuously evolving, so
as we record this episode, this is the date. So
back in September, the Indian government passed very controversial farm
(02:58):
laws without resulting any stakeholders. According to experts, these laws
would drive out small and marginal farmers and allow for
the creation of private monopolies. And this is a huge
deal because in India eighties six percent of farmers are
small landowners. So of course many people were furious, right,
(03:19):
hundreds of thousands of Indians started protesting, camping at the
main entry points to the capital, demanding the government repels
the laws. The protests gained wide support both in Indian
around the world, and honestly, it's definitely made a lot
of traction within the celebrity worlds as well, and it's
interesting to see the conversations that are happening because there's
(03:39):
also a lot of backlash specifically coming from the Indian
government as well as their celebrities. So it's interesting to see.
And right now it is cold in India and but
people are refusing to leave. Yeah, And these protests have
been largely led and sustained by women of all ages,
like really traveling from all over and these women and
(04:03):
girls have been making sure there are rations, there are blankets,
all the necessities. Um. I've read stories of them waking
up super early to make sure there's enough food to
get people through the day. And on the other hand,
women have been running farms to enable their husbands to protest,
so they're doing that work of the protests too. They're
managing the farm while the man of the family is
(04:24):
away protesting potentially, which is all the more amazing when
looking at the two states at the forefront of the protest,
Punjab and Hadeyana. Both are among the worst performers when
it comes to the ratio of men to women and
have patriarchal systems that put constraints on women in various ways.
And households in these areas are usually categorized by unequal
access to resources, a problem that worse since during times
(04:46):
of economic stress, like during a pandemic, are potentially losing
your farm. Because of these things, any decrease in farming
income will almost certainly disproportionately have a negative impact on women.
And on top of that, cuts and farmers income could
lead to farmers going into debt, which is one of
the leading causes of suicide among farmers in India. And
(05:07):
due to the patriarchal way inheritance works, they're often prohibiting
women from owning land. Women in families where there is
a suicide are at high risk of poverty. Now, I
do want to say, obviously this is a many and
these are complex issues, like we could unpack a lot
of this stuff, and we're also coming from an outsider's perspective,
but these are kind of the surface level of why
(05:30):
this protest is so big and so important and there's
so many things at stake, right. So, reporters interviewing women
participating in these protests found that they often spoke of
how active they are in the agricultural process, including labor
and providing support in the form of cooking, cleaning, and
caring for family members. Despite the long, hard days, women
(05:50):
have done this work unaccredited and they're not seen as farmers.
While an estimated of all farm work is done by women,
which I've actually seen the numbers as high as eighty
five percent as well, because it's all varying, the only
account for twelve percent of land ownership, which is such
a shame. That's another reason women have given when asked
why they're protesting. They want people to know women are
(06:13):
farmers too, and these protests are changing that. Women are
about a hundred protests sites in Punjab alone and the
protests are ongoing and have been going. Yeah, so these
women want people to know like, yes, women are farmers too,
and that's one of the reasons they're showing up is yes,
I am involved in this very important to me and
um wanting to get the credit and recognition of the
(06:35):
work that they're doing. And going back to what you said, Samantha,
different celebrities like Rihanna have been bringing attention to the
protests and have even garnered backlash from the Indian government
and celebrities. There After tweeting an article about the protest,
many Indians have lashed out saying she was ill informed
and using propaganda to divide the country. But as more
(06:57):
and more protesters come out and many risk their lives
by staying out in the cold to make their force heard. Also,
it is a pandemic. Still, it is clear there is
a call for change, right And it's really interesting on
a side note, that many of the attacks on Rihanna
are really troll level attacks, often referencing her domestic violence
incident with Chris Brown from way back when, and many
(07:17):
slut shaming her and calling her a prostitute in the
midst of all of this, like it's gonna outright like
mean and and just so you know, there's a lot
of conversation about the fact that they have been limiting
access to social media within India as a way of
kind of controlling the narrative, of trying to hold onto
the narrative. Stating that again people outside of India are
being ill informed in this protest is dangerous and it's
(07:41):
almost as if blaming the protesters again as we've seen
many times, for the violence and for the deaths and
for the clashes that's been happening. Yeah, and speaking of
the Indian government has bargained to hault the law for
eighteen months, but many are still calling for the complete
repeal of the new laws, but they have yet to
see any conversation around that. The protest has been contentious
(08:04):
throughout the months, including protesters clashing with police and government officials,
even to the point the government has been building trenches
around the capital. And yeah, we have seen violence and death, right, So, yeah,
there's been a number of deaths reported, but it's been
so varying and the causes so varying, it's kind of
been hard to see exact numbers. And even talking about
(08:24):
the incidents where they took over tractors and we're driving
it to the capital and that brought on some violent
situations as well, but not really clear to all the details.
It's it's interesting to see what we are able to
get access of and who's being able to speak and
who's being silenced. And there are a few ways to help,
including checking out Save India, the Farmers which is one
(08:46):
of the organizations, and the Center for Sustainable Agriculture, and
then there's a fundraiser organized by the United Seek Mission
to supply medical assistance during this protest. So there are
ways to reach out to see what's happening, to see
how to assist. But there's a lot of stuff going
on there, and it's been going on there and unfortunately
limited access to being able to see what exactly is
(09:08):
happening on the grounds and how we can help from
what information we can gather, watching the evolution of At
first these protests were mostly men, and then women kept
trickling in and trickling in and trickling in, and now
when you see pictures a lot of times it's mostly women.
So that conversation, the ongoing conversation around women as farmers
(09:29):
in India and the work that they do. I'm glad
that attention is being brought to that. And as always, listeners,
if any of you are in India, are you have
information that perhaps we don't, we would love to hear
from you. Our email is Stuff Medium, mom Stuff at
iHeart media dot com. You can find us on Instagram
(09:51):
and Stuff I've Never Told You are on Twitter at
mom Stuff Podcast. Thanks It's always the a super producer, Christina,
Thank you, and thanks to you for listening Stuff I
Never Told You, the production of I Radio. For more
podcasts from I Heeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
Hey, this is Danny and Samantha. I'm welcome to stuff
I've never told your protection of I heart radio, said Samantha.
My question for you is do you have any experience
with farms? Farming? So I do have a little experience,
(00:28):
not a lot, because I haven't spoken many times before
how I kill plants um and purpose right, No, it
just inevitably happens because plants hate me. Been keeping my
basil alive. I'm fairly I'm fairly proud of that. Although
now my partner's taken over and is doing a better
job than I did, so whatever, not better. But you know,
(00:50):
I come from a small town that has a lot
of egg farms, chicken farms, and cow farms, and you
know your typical corn and all of I never necessarily
was raised on one, but because I was in proximity
with that, I would have friends who would have worked
on farms and stuff like that, and I would go
as well. And I've had a couple of summers of
(01:12):
experiences of that. I didn't like it. No, No, because
one of my jobs was cleaning off egg poop, chicken
poop off of eggs. I think I gagged the entire
time and I was not a fan. I was not
a fan, was not a fan. What about you? Yeah,
I feel like I'm in a similar vein I. I
think we've talked before about we both went to schools.
(01:32):
Were in high school. There was like program and you
would go and like the f f A. Yeah, I
was gonna say, do things with cows. That sounds so wrong,
you know, kind of have those experiences on farms and
almost like a tourist visiting. Some of my family members
have farms, and when I was a kid, I thought
(01:53):
it was really really cool, like to see the chickens
and the cows and um, one of my realiity has
had his horses. But I wasn't working on the farm.
So I feel like that's a different that's a different thing.
Like it was cool for me to see it and
all that land, you know. But even if like I
remember once I was like, yeah, I'll put me to work,
and then I was like, no, this is a lot
(02:14):
of work. Yeah, I will say after working just for
like a couple of summers, the amount of work, the
amount of like what it felt like backbreaking work, I
was like, yeah, man, kudos to whoever can do this.
And they're not getting paid enough. Like that was the
entirety of my conversation was like, no, whatever they're getting
paid is not enough. Totally agree. So we wanted to
(02:37):
put a time stamp on this one. It is February
ninth one because things do move really rapidly, and today
we're talking about the farmers protests in India and there
is a lot going on there. It's continuously evolving, so
as we record this episode, this is the date. So
back in September, the Indian government passed very controversial farm
(02:58):
laws without resulting any stakeholders. According to experts, these laws
would drive out small and marginal farmers and allow for
the creation of private monopolies. And this is a huge
deal because in India eighties six percent of farmers are
small landowners. So of course many people were furious, right,
(03:19):
hundreds of thousands of Indians started protesting, camping at the
main entry points to the capital, demanding the government repels
the laws. The protests gained wide support both in Indian
around the world, and honestly, it's definitely made a lot
of traction within the celebrity worlds as well, and it's
interesting to see the conversations that are happening because there's
(03:39):
also a lot of backlash specifically coming from the Indian
government as well as their celebrities. So it's interesting to see.
And right now it is cold in India and but
people are refusing to leave. Yeah, And these protests have
been largely led and sustained by women of all ages,
like really traveling from all over and these women and
(04:03):
girls have been making sure there are rations, there are blankets,
all the necessities. Um. I've read stories of them waking
up super early to make sure there's enough food to
get people through the day. And on the other hand,
women have been running farms to enable their husbands to protest,
so they're doing that work of the protests too. They're
managing the farm while the man of the family is
(04:24):
away protesting potentially, which is all the more amazing when
looking at the two states at the forefront of the protest,
Punjab and Hadeyana. Both are among the worst performers when
it comes to the ratio of men to women and
have patriarchal systems that put constraints on women in various ways.
And households in these areas are usually categorized by unequal
access to resources, a problem that worse since during times
(04:46):
of economic stress, like during a pandemic, are potentially losing
your farm. Because of these things, any decrease in farming
income will almost certainly disproportionately have a negative impact on women.
And on top of that, cuts and farmers income could
lead to farmers going into debt, which is one of
the leading causes of suicide among farmers in India. And
(05:07):
due to the patriarchal way inheritance works, they're often prohibiting
women from owning land. Women in families where there is
a suicide are at high risk of poverty. Now, I
do want to say, obviously this is a many and
these are complex issues, like we could unpack a lot
of this stuff, and we're also coming from an outsider's perspective,
but these are kind of the surface level of why
(05:30):
this protest is so big and so important and there's
so many things at stake, right. So, reporters interviewing women
participating in these protests found that they often spoke of
how active they are in the agricultural process, including labor
and providing support in the form of cooking, cleaning, and
caring for family members. Despite the long, hard days, women
(05:50):
have done this work unaccredited and they're not seen as farmers.
While an estimated of all farm work is done by women,
which I've actually seen the numbers as high as eighty
five percent as well, because it's all varying, the only
account for twelve percent of land ownership, which is such
a shame. That's another reason women have given when asked
why they're protesting. They want people to know women are
(06:13):
farmers too, and these protests are changing that. Women are
about a hundred protests sites in Punjab alone and the
protests are ongoing and have been going. Yeah, so these
women want people to know like, yes, women are farmers too,
and that's one of the reasons they're showing up is yes,
I am involved in this very important to me and
um wanting to get the credit and recognition of the
(06:35):
work that they're doing. And going back to what you said, Samantha,
different celebrities like Rihanna have been bringing attention to the
protests and have even garnered backlash from the Indian government
and celebrities. There After tweeting an article about the protest,
many Indians have lashed out saying she was ill informed
and using propaganda to divide the country. But as more
(06:57):
and more protesters come out and many risk their lives
by staying out in the cold to make their force heard. Also,
it is a pandemic. Still, it is clear there is
a call for change, right And it's really interesting on
a side note, that many of the attacks on Rihanna
are really troll level attacks, often referencing her domestic violence
incident with Chris Brown from way back when, and many
(07:17):
slut shaming her and calling her a prostitute in the
midst of all of this, like it's gonna outright like
mean and and just so you know, there's a lot
of conversation about the fact that they have been limiting
access to social media within India as a way of
kind of controlling the narrative, of trying to hold onto
the narrative. Stating that again people outside of India are
being ill informed in this protest is dangerous and it's
(07:41):
almost as if blaming the protesters again as we've seen
many times, for the violence and for the deaths and
for the clashes that's been happening. Yeah, and speaking of
the Indian government has bargained to hault the law for
eighteen months, but many are still calling for the complete
repeal of the new laws, but they have yet to
see any conversation around that. The protest has been contentious
(08:04):
throughout the months, including protesters clashing with police and government officials,
even to the point the government has been building trenches
around the capital. And yeah, we have seen violence and death, right, So, yeah,
there's been a number of deaths reported, but it's been
so varying and the causes so varying, it's kind of
been hard to see exact numbers. And even talking about
(08:24):
the incidents where they took over tractors and we're driving
it to the capital and that brought on some violent
situations as well, but not really clear to all the details.
It's it's interesting to see what we are able to
get access of and who's being able to speak and
who's being silenced. And there are a few ways to help,
including checking out Save India, the Farmers which is one
(08:46):
of the organizations, and the Center for Sustainable Agriculture, and
then there's a fundraiser organized by the United Seek Mission
to supply medical assistance during this protest. So there are
ways to reach out to see what's happening, to see
how to assist. But there's a lot of stuff going
on there, and it's been going on there and unfortunately
limited access to being able to see what exactly is
(09:08):
happening on the grounds and how we can help from
what information we can gather, watching the evolution of At
first these protests were mostly men, and then women kept
trickling in and trickling in and trickling in, and now
when you see pictures a lot of times it's mostly women.
So that conversation, the ongoing conversation around women as farmers
(09:29):
in India and the work that they do. I'm glad
that attention is being brought to that. And as always, listeners,
if any of you are in India, are you have
information that perhaps we don't, we would love to hear
from you. Our email is Stuff Medium, mom Stuff at
iHeart media dot com. You can find us on Instagram
(09:51):
and Stuff I've Never Told You are on Twitter at
mom Stuff Podcast. Thanks It's always the a super producer, Christina,
Thank you, and thanks to you for listening Stuff I
Never Told You, the production of I Radio. For more
podcasts from I Heeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
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