State of Environment Report : Farmer Protests – UPSC GS3

Utility: Useful data. Can be used in answers and  essays.
Context: The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has released the State of Environment Report, 2021 which focused upon the data related to farmer protests.
Report on Farmers Protests:
  • Farmers Protests in India have registered an almost five-fold increase since 2017.
  • In 2017, there were 34 major protests across 15 States. The number has now increased to 165 protests in 2020. (#Diagram. Chart can be prepared)
  • Reasons for Farm Protests:
    • Contentious Central farm laws
    • Procurement and agricultural market price-related failures
    • Protests against inadequate Budget allocations for the agricultural sector.
    • Battles against the acquisition of farmland for development projects
    • Loan Waivers or poor insurance coverage among others.
Other key Findings:
  • Farm Labourers:
    • India has more farm labourers than landowning farmers and cultivators.
      • This has been found in 52% of the country’s districts.
      • Among States, Bihar, Kerala and Puducherry have more farm labourers than farmers in all their districts.
  • Farmer’s Suicides:
    • Every day, over 28 farm labourers and cultivators commit suicide in our country.
    • In 2019, there were 5,957 farmer suicides along with an additional 4,324 farm labourers who died by suicide.
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