Women played pivotal role in stir’s success

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 20

Women in Punjab’s rural hinterland are as much to be congratulated as their men folk for the success of farmers’ yearlong struggle. For, this is the first time that such massive women participation had been seen in any socio-political movement in the state.

Women, especially among the farming community, have traditionally remained confined to their home. The farmers’ struggle brought them out of their home and they either stood with the men at the Singhu and Tikri borders or stayed put in villages, managing fields on their own and participating in the 108-odd pucca dharnas across Punjab.

Among thousands of women who marched to Delhi, 35 died, majority from Malwa region. A seminar by Samyukt Nari Manch (Punjab Women Collective) to honour the participation and “martyrdom” of the women protesters was held today, where eminent women, including Dr Vandana Shiva and Medha Patkar, participated. Explaining how difficult it was to get the women out of their comfort zone, Harinder Bindu, a prominent leader of Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan), told The Tribune that she had realised quite early that women participation in the protests would be important. “When the ordinances were issued, our union leadership realised that it would be a long struggle and would not be possible without women participation. We started energising them. They agreed and we took hundreds of women to the protest sites,” she said.

Paramjit Longowal, general secretary, Zameen Prapti Sangharsh Committee, said the women participation would finally erode the gender bias in rural areas. “I visited villages and told them how Dalits would be hit the hardest as the corporates would first take away the village common land. This clicked and they came out in huge numbers,” she said.

“It was not easy,” Jasbir Kaur Natt, a prominent woman leader of the protest (owing allegiance to Punjab Kisan Union) told The Tribune. “But the cause was just too phenomenal and each one had to do their bit. At the protest sites, the gender divide did not exist. It is this unity, cutting across religion, caste, economic status and gender that had ultimately led to the government bowing before the will of the people,” she said.

Jagdish Kaur, 72, can barely walk but remained the most prominent face of the protest outside Adani Logistics Park at Kila Raipur since January 1. “I could not go to Delhi. But I did not miss sitting on the morcha in Kila Raipur for a single day. My friend, Mohinder Kaur, died during the protest. I felt morally obliged to protest till the laws were withdrawn. The price we paid for it is too high. But our next generations will remember this and we hope they live peacefully,” she added.