One Year of Farmers' Protest: Women a Force to Reckon With at Tikri Border

From 25 November onwards, protesters had started flocking to the Tikri border site, in tractors and trolleys.

Trolley of 15 first time protesters.

(Photo: Accessed by The Quint/Ashna Butani)

For a whole year, 29-year-old Navpreet Kaur has admired from her mobile phone screen the farmers who have been protesting at Delhi’s borders. Her husband, a farmer in Punjab’s Fazilka, being one of them.

Finally, on the one-year anniversary of the Kisan Andolan, Navpreet didn’t have to rely on her phone. She was present at the Tikri border, with a wide smile on her face. “I have two children, under the age of three, at home. It was impossible to come, although I really wanted to. My husband has visited a few times,” she told The Quint.

On Friday, Navpreet’s husband was at home in Fazilka, taking care of their children, and she was at the Tikri border, raising slogans, and soaking in the festive atmosphere. “We are 15 women and four children who have come from the village in a trolley. We will return at the end of the day,” she said.

Women Throng Tikri Border

Harjeet Kaur (middle) from Fazilka with her aunt and son.

(Photo: Ashna Butani/The Quint)

Navpreet Kaur (left hand side) and Paramjeet Kaur (right hand side), first time protesters.

(Photo: Ashna Butani/The Quint)

From 25 November onward, protesters from across Punjab and Haryana started flocking to the Tikri border site, in tractors and trolleys. In fact, the first anniversary of the protest at Tikri was reminiscent of day one at the site with people as far as the eye can see. At this protest, the women were a force to reckon with.

Another first-timer at Tikri was 55-year-old Paramjeet Kaur, also from Fazilka, who said, “While the men went away to participate in the protests, we were in-charge of the fields entirely. Before this, apart from household chores, we sowed seeds and made cow-dung cakes but in the last year, the work increased a lot. That is why I couldn’t make it.”

Paramjeet’s son and nephew are regulars at Tikri border. “I am just happy to be here, to finally be amongst the people at the protest site,” she said.

In the last one year, most protesting families from Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh have been following the “rotation” method wherein they take turns to stay at the site. For instance, Harjeet Kaur and her six sisters from a village in Punjab’s Fazilka district. The 35-year-old is an anganwadi worker, her other sisters work in the fields, and one of them is a doctor.

“We’ve set up a tent near the PDM University Pandit Shree Ram Sharma metro station, close to the site. My sisters and I take turns, I have stayed here four times so far,” she said. Accompanying Harjeet at the protest on 26 November was her son. “Teachers understand, they don’t object to a parent taking their child to a protest. This too is important,” she said.

On International Women’s Day on 8 March, the protest site at Tikri was entirely managed by the women. Those not at the protest site are holding fort back home by managing the fields and household chores. In more than one way, women farmers have been turning the wheels of the protest for a year, making it the movement that it is.

'We Will Not Go Back Till All Our Demands Are Met'

(Photo: Ashna Butani/The Quint)

On the anniversary's afternoon, while hundreds sat in front of the stage at Tikri border, others sang songs, poems, prepared langar, and narrated stories of the last one year of the Kisan Andolan. Across the site, the main sentiment remained of “cautious optimism,” with many protesters calling the announcement of repeal of the three farm laws “adhi jeet” or “half victory.”

Sudesh Goyat, a farm leader from Haryana’s Hisar, said, “Women have been facing trouble running their homes due to rising diesel and cylinder prices. Even khaad (fertiliser) costs have gone up. We will not go back till all our demands, including those related to the MSP are met. We also want the families of the farmers who have died in the last one year to be compensated.”