Families Mourn Protesting Farmers Who Lost Their Lives, Say Govt Support 'Inadequate' -Vivek Gupta

-TheWire.in

According to farmers' organisations, 48 protesters have passed away due to illness and accidents so far.

Chandigarh: The Centre’s new farm laws, and the protests they have triggered, are leaving permanent scars on Punjabi families as the number of protesters losing their lives steadily rises. On December 1, 32-year-old Baljinder Singh, a farmer from Jhammat village in Ludhiana, died in a road accident near Kurukshetra in Haryana while returning from the farmers’ protest in Delhi.

Fellow villagers has called him a ‘martyr’ following his death, but the family is inconsolable.

Jasbir Singh, a member of the family, said that three years ago, Baljinder’s mother Charanjit Kaur became a widow. Now, his wife Amandeep Kaur too has lost her husband. Baljinder’s six-year-old daughter Noor and three-year-old son Jaiveer haven’t stopped crying and asking for their father since his death. “Who will now cultivate the farms and take care of the cattle? There is also no government financial support yet,” said Jasbir.

This isn’t the only family facing this fate – stories like this have engulfed the state as tens of thousands of farmers continue to sit on dharna at Delhi borders, trying to get news Acts repealed. As of December 24, 48 farmers from Punjab have lost their lives ever since the farmers’ protests began in the last week of September, reveals data compiled by farmers’ organisations.

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