Small, marginal tribal farmers and labourers from state gather — ‘Missing protest was not an option’
Suvarna Gangurde, a mother of five and a farmer from Nashik district, along with 35 other farmers and their families gathered at Azad Maidan in Mumbai on Monday to show solidarity with the farmers protesting in Delhi against the new farm laws.
Unlike the farmers from Punjab and Haryana, who are protesting at Delhi and own large tracts of land, many gathered at Azad Maidan like Gangurde were small and marginal tribal farmers and labourers from Nashik, Dahanu, Palghar, Dhule and Nandurbar.
Gangurde, like many in her village, has small landholdings – around 5 acre in Dindori taluka, around 191 km from Mumbai.
If the harvest is good, she grows jowar, local millet and paddy on the land, which she is in an ownership dispute with the forest department.
The produce from her land is...