ARHATIYA (Not Farmer) AGITATION.
Request indulgence. Another Long Thread curated from @Indusglyphs FB page ...
PUNJAB & CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD
- In Punjab, Jatt Sikhs own more than 90% of available agricultural land.
- Jatt Sikhs are 50-60% of the Sikh population.
Contd
- Among all Indian states, Punjab has highest proportion of DALITS.
- Only 3.5% of Pvt farm land is with Dalits who are 32% of population. The national avg is 8.6% of farm land for 16.6% of Dalits.
- Punjab has max %age (5.28%) of big farmers owning >10 hectares of land.
- Punjab has highest Gini quotient of inequality compared to other states.
- Dalits, landless & manual workers make up abt 35% of state population.
- Jutt Sikhs dominate due to political & social control.
- Arhtiyas & Large Farms owned by Jutt Sikhs, form the choke point.
- Farmer unions in Punjab, starting from the New Farmers Movements of the 1970s and 1980s, have served the interests of LARGE farmers.
- Assertion of land rights often leads to grave violence in Punjab where popular culture glamorizes gun toting to gain possession of land.
- In Punjab, there's also 'common village land'. Large farmers wrest control & cultivate them, excl Dalits.
- Dalits are majority of labour. In Punjab, Dalit farm labourers are ref as seeri, rather derisively. They form heart of agrarian workforce, but thr condition is fragile.