Facing odds, elderly and women not ready to leave farmers’ protest midway

Despite the central government’s requests to the protesters to request the elderly and children among them to go back home, many at UP Gate have not heeded that

Despite the central government’s requests to the protesters to request the elderly and children among them to go back home, many at UP Gate have not heeded that call.

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Sixty-year-old Suresh Chand is on “maun vrat (oath of silence)” and has fastened a mask around his mouth that read “Gandhi Ji ke pad chinnh, bhook hartaal par (On foot-steps of Gandhiji, on hunger strike”). He showed a handwritten note with a list of demands that included the complete repeal of the new farm laws.

People around him said Chand had been fasting since December 6.

Satnam Singh, 63, from Meerut, is also on protest -- sitting on the highway during the day and sleeping on the roadside at night. He is dressed in white kurta-pyjama and traditional Punjabi Jutti as shoes, with a staff in hand.

“There is no question of going back from here till government accepts our demands. We elected the government and they should pay heed to our demands. In fact, if these demands are met, the Prime Minister will be lauded by all and will get a lot of appreciation,” he said. “We sleep on road with blankets that are drenched due to the mist. Still, we stay strong.”

Pilibhit resident Vikramjeet Singh, 19, was supposed to go to Australia to attend university.

“Since the pandemic hit, I decided stay here and when the protests hit, I decided to join them,” he said. “I will not go back till the farmers’ demands are met. I am sleeping on tractor-trolleys with other farmers.

Jashandeep Singh, a class 12 student has also come from Pilibhit.

“We have small farmland back home and my father has opened a small pesticide shop. So, in away, our fortunes are tied to the farmers. We sleep on roads with a blanket ever since I came here. I will not be leaving the protest midway,” he said.

Below the UP Gate flyover is a group of women from Amroha.

“We left our children and cattle back home and came for this important protest and just not to leave it midway. There is no one to look after our farms there anyway. So, we will be here till demands get accepted by the government,” said Poonam Kumari.

District magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey said that he has also made appeals to protesters to go back.

“We have made number of appeals to them to leave for home but they are not ready. We also asked them to at least send home children, women and elderly and have also made similar appeals to their leaders as the weather conditions are harsh and not favourable. It seems they are not ready,” he said.

The protests at the UP Gate are likely to continue and extend further. The farmers have occupied the Ghaziabad-Delhi carriageway of National Highway-9 which is now blocked for any traffic.

The farmer unions on Wednesday also rejected a proposal sent by the Centre to end the impasse over farm laws. The farmers protesting near national capital Delhi said that they will block the Delhi-Jaipur national highway by December 12 and hold protest demonstrations in many parts of the country on December 14.

They are protesting and demanding that the government rollback the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act 2020.